


Halo's Whumptober 2019 Collection

by HaloRocks1214



Category: Homestuck, Kingdom Hearts, Mystery Skulls Animated, Original Work, Persona 5, Red Robin (Comics), Tiger & Bunny, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Abandonment, Aftermath of Torture, Angst, Blood and Injury, Brother-Sister Relationships, Bullying, Concussions, Crying, Cuddling & Snuggling, Dissociation, Explosions, F/M, Family Feels, Father-Daughter Relationship, Father-Son Relationship, Fever, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Gun Violence, Gunshot Wounds, Hallucinations, Hiding Medical Issues, Hospitalization, Hostage Situations, Hurt/Comfort, Illnesses, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Isolation, Kidnapping, M/M, Mementos (Persona 5), Mother-Daughter Relationship, Mother-Son Relationship, Multi, Mythical Powers, Nightmares, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Not Really Character Death, Panic Attacks, Past Abuse, Platonic Cuddling, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Protective Siblings, Protectiveness, Rescue, Restraints, Sacrifice, Self-Esteem Issues, Self-Harm, Self-Hatred, Shaky Hands, Sibling Love, Siblings, Stabbing, Stitches, Strangulation, Team Feels, Team as Family, Torture, Unconsciousness, Whump, Whumptober 2019
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-01
Updated: 2019-11-01
Packaged: 2020-11-09 09:24:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 32
Words: 52,378
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20851148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HaloRocks1214/pseuds/HaloRocks1214
Summary: my subconscious, knowing i'm busy and have other fics i need to write:hoe don't do itme, who tends to make bad decisions:*participates in Whumptober 2019*my subconscious, shaking its metaphorical head:oh my god





	1. Chapter Guide

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If you're clicking on this past Nov. 1st, welcome to the Chapter Guide!
> 
> Each listing works like this (the brackets signal something that changes each chapter):  
Chapter [#]: [Prompt]  
\- [Fandom]  
\- [Relationships], [if there is more than one]  
\- [Tag], [Tag], [until all have been listed]
> 
> Extra Notes:  
\- Whump, Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, and Angst Tags apply to every chapter (of course)  
\- There is a possibility certain tags might not really apply to the chapters they were added to but that's just because I like to over-tag my stuff. You can feel free to let me know if something doesn't make sense  
\- You can also tell me if I'm straight up missing something, whether it be just in the Chapter Guide or the entire fic itself
> 
> With all that said, I hope you enjoy!

**Chapter 1: Plain old handy-dandy chapter guide. Time for the fun stuff, my dudes**

Chapter 2: Shaky Hands  
\- Homestuck  
\- Dave Strider & Dirk Strider  
\- Panic Attacks, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Past Abuse, Shaky Hands, Siblings, Family Feels, Platonic Cuddling, Sibling Love

Chapter 3: Explosion  
\- Tiger & Bunny  
\- Barnaby "Bunny" Brooks Jr./Kaburagi T. Kotetsu  
\- Explosions, Concussions, Hospitalization, Unconsciousness, Blood and Injury, Sacrifice

Chapter 4: Delirium  
\- Red Robin  
\- Tim Drake & Dick Grayson & Jason Todd  
\- Illnesses, Fever, Self-Esteem Issues, Unconsciousness, Siblings, Protective Siblings, Family Feels, Rescue, Hiding Medical Issues, Sibling Love, Protectiveness

Chapter 5: Human Shield  
\- Boku no Hero Academia  
\- Bakugou Katsuki & Midoriya Izuku  
\- Gun Violence, Hospitalization, Unconsciousness, Blood and Injury, Team as Family, Protectiveness

Chapter 6: Gunpoint  
\- Homestuck  
\- Dave Strider & Dirk Strider  
\- Panic Attacks, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Past Abuse, Gun Violence, Blood and Injury, Siblings, Hostage Situations, Sibling Love, Gunshot Wounds

Chapter 7: Dragged Away  
\- Kingdom Hearts  
\- Donald Duck & Goofy & Sora  
\- Unconsciousness, Blood and Injury, Family Feels, Team Feels, Team as Family, Strangulation

Chapter 8: Isolation  
\- Red Robin  
\- Tim Drake & Damian Wayne  
\- Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Self-Esteem Issues, Isolation, Siblings, Protective Siblings, Sibling Love, Protectiveness

Chapter 9: Stab Wound  
\- Kingdom Hearts  
\- Kairi/Riku/Sora  
\- Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Self-Esteem Issues, Nightmares, Stabbing, Not Really Character Death, Cuddling & Snuggling, Crying, Team Feals, Team as Family

Chapter 10: Shackled  
\- Mystery Skulls Animated  
\- Arthur/Lewis/Vivi, Arthur & Mystery  
\- Torture, Aftermath of Torture, Cuddling & Snuggling, Blood and Injury, Crying, Team Feels, Team as Family, Restraints, Rescue, Kidnapping

Chapter 11: Unconscious  
\- Tiger & Bunny  
\- Barnaby "Bunny" Brooks Jr./Kaburagi T. Kotetsu, Kaburagi T. Kotetsu & Everyone  
\- Unconsciousness, Blood and Injury, Crying, Team Feels, Team as Family, Rescue, Protectiveness

Chapter 12: Stitches  
\- Red Robin  
\- Tim Drake & Bruce Wayne  
\- Self-Esteem Issues, Stitches, Blood and Injury, Self-Harm, Father-Son Relationship, Family Feels, Hiding Medical Issues, Protectiveness

Chapter 13: “Don’t Move.”  
\- Kingdom Hearts  
\- Kairi/Riku/Sora  
\- Shaky Hands, Blood and Injury, Crying, Team Feels, Team as Family, Rescue, Protectiveness

Chapter 14: Adrenaline  
\- Mystery Skulls Animated  
\- Arthur/Lewis/Vivi, Arthur & Mystery  
\- Self-Esteem Issues, Blood and Injury, Crying, Sacrifice, Team Feels, Team as Family, Protectiveness

Chapter 15: Tear-stained  
\- Boku no Hero Academia  
\- Midoriya Inko & Midoriya Izuku  
\- Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Self-Esteem Issues, Crying, Family Feels, Platonic Cuddling, Bullying, Protectiveness, Mother-Son Relationship

Chapter 16: Scars  
\- Original Work  
\- Original Female Character & Original Male Character, Original Female Character & Original Female Character  
\- Panic Attacks, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Self-Esteem Issues, Blood and Injury, Crying, Self-Harm, Self-Hatred, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Mother-Daughter Relationship, Father-Daughter Relationship, Family Feels, Platonic Cuddling, Protectiveness, Mythical Powers

Chapter 17: Pinned Down  
\- Persona 5  
\- Kurusu Akira & Sojiro Sakura  
\- Unconsciousness, Blood and Injury, Father-Son Relationship, Sacrifice, Mementos (Persona 5), Family Feels, Team as Family, Platonic Cuddling

Chapter 18: “Stay with me.”  
\- Original Work  
\- Original Female Character & Original Male Character  
\- Panic Attacks, Self-Esteem Issues, Unconsciousness, Blood and Injury, Crying, Self-Hatred, Mother-Daughter Relationship, Team Feels, Team as Family, Rescue, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Mythical Powers

Chapter 19: Muffled Scream  
\- Kingdom Hearts  
\- Sora & Ventus  
\- Panic Attacks, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Nightmares, Torture, Team Feels, Team as Family, Platonic Cuddling, Hallucinations

Chapter 20: Asphyxiation  
\- Tiger & Bunny  
\- Barnaby "Bunny" Brooks Jr./Kaburagi T. Kotetsu, Kaburagi Kaede & Kaburagi T. Kotetsu  
\- Hospitalization, Blood and Injury, Crying, Father-Daughter Relationship, Family Feels, Rescue, Strangulation, Protectiveness

Chapter 21: Trembling  
\- Original Work  
\- Original Female Character & Original Male Character  
\- Panic Attacks, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Self-Esteem Issues, Aftermath of Torture, Blood and Injury, Crying, Father-Daughter Relationship, Sacrifice, Family Feels, Platonic Cuddling, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Hiding Medical Issues, Kidnapping, Protectiveness

Chapter 22: Laced Drink  
\- Mystery Skulls Animated  
\- Arthur & Mystery  
\- Unconsciousness, Team Feels, Team as Family, Rescue, Platonic Cuddling, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Protectiveness, Kidnapping

Chapter 23: Hallucination  
\- Homestuck  
\- Dave Strider & Dirk Strider  
\- Panic Attacks, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Past Abuse, Nightmares, Siblings, Hallucinations, Sibling Love

Chapter 24: Bleeding Out  
\- Tiger and Bunny  
\- Barnaby "Bunny" Brooks Jr./Kaburagi T. Kotetsu  
\- Self-Esteem Issues, Hospitalization, Stabbing, Unconsciousness, Blood and Injury, Team Feels, Team as Family, Rescue, Protectiveness

Chapter 25: Secret Injury  
\- Persona 5  
\- Polythieves (if you wish to see it that way)  
\- Self-Esteem Issues, Cuddling & Snuggling, Unconsciousness, Blood and Injury, Crying, Mementos (Persona 5), Team Feels, Team as Family, Platonic Cuddling, Hiding Medical Issues, Protectiveness

Chapter 26: Humiliation  
\- Boku no Hero Academia  
\- Class 1-A & Midoriya Izuku  
\- Panic Attacks, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Self-Esteem Issues, Team Feels, Team as Family, Bullying, Abandonment, Protectiveness

Chapter 27: Abandoned  
\- Persona 5  
\- Polythieves (if you wish to see it that way)  
\- Panic Attacks, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Self-Esteem Issues, Father-Son Relationship, Team Feels, Team as Family, Bullying, Abandonment, Protectiveness

Chapter 28: Ransom  
\- Boku no Hero Academia  
\- Midoriya Izuku & Yagi Toshinori | All Might  
\- Panic Attacks, Shaky Hands, Father-Son Relationship, Protectiveness, Kidnapping

Chapter 29: Beaten  
\- Persona 5  
\- Kurusu Akira & Sojiro Sakura  
\- Panic Attacks, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Blood and Injury, Father-Son Relationship, Family Feels, Rescue, Dissociation, Protectiveness

Chapter 30: Numb  
\- Red Robin  
\- Tim Drake & Dick Grayson & Jason Todd, Tim Drake & Damian Wayne, Tim Drake & Bruce Wayne  
\- Self-Esteem Issues, Blood and Injury, Father-Son Relationship, Siblings, Protective Siblings, Family Feels, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Sibling Love, Protectiveness

Chapter 31: Recovery  
\- Homestuck  
\- Dave Strider & Dirk Strider  
\- Panic Attacks, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Past Abuse, Shaky Hands, Self-Esteem Issues, Nightmares, Siblings, Family Feels, Platonic Cuddling, Hallucinations, Dissociation, Sibling Love

Chapter 32: Embrace/Hiding  
\- Original Work  
\- Original Female Character & Original Male Character  
\- Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder- PTSD, Self-Esteem Issues, Isolation, Crying, Siblings, Protective Siblings, Family Feels, Platonic Cuddling, Brother-Sister Relationships, Sibling Love, Protectiveness, Mythical Powers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you wish to scream at me here's my [main tumblr](https://halorocks1214.tumblr.com/)
> 
> And while youre at it heres my [whump blog](https://whumpitlikeitshot.tumblr.com/)


	2. Shaky Hands

For the longest time, Dirk always remembered that his hands shook.

If he was scared, mad, anxious, sometimes even hungry, the limbs that are used to grab things always moved like a leaf in the wind, never resting until he could find a way to calm them. Those ways usually involved either his headphones or solitude, but when those didn’t work, it wasn’t until he finally went to sleep at night would they end their relentless movements. Roxy always tried to help, but text chats could only go so far.

Why is Dirk thinking about this? Well, why do you think, smart one? He can’t tell if it’s gotten better or worse after all the grandiose bullshit that was Sburb, but that could mainly be because he can’t think straight at all right now. Panic attacks are giant mother fuckers if he’s going to be completely honest.

He’s keeping it steady for the most part, thank God, and silent too. For whatever fucking reason, _Dave,_ his now _younger_ brother asked to stay the night at his new place. _Dave_ asked _Dirk._ Out of his own free will.

Dirk asked him if Rose or Roxy put him up to this.

The only thing Dave could do was laugh and say, “If ‘running from them because you accidentally burned down half their garden’ counts as ‘putting me up to this’, then yes. 100%.”

Dirk let him into his apartment in the next hour with no more questions.

Now he was here, trying to hide his breakdown by tensing up and being still as a rock. If he’s learned anything, Dave is anything but a morning person. He’d hate to not only ruin his brother’s morning but also indirectly make his freakout worse because someone being pissed off in his general vicinity would not be good combination with his freaking-the-frick-out brain. Not at all.

Then, the unexpected of unexpecteds happened. That’s double the unexpected-ness.

Right as Dirk gripped the pillow on the couch and shoved his face into it to mumble his groans of annoyance, he heard footsteps walk down the stairs. Right before the, what is presumed to be robber entered the room, Dirk shoved the pillow back onto the couch and put his shades over his eyes (because if the Striders don’t have them on, you best bet they’re at least in grabbing-and-putting-on range).

A robber might have been easier to deal with in hindsight because the person Dirk laid his eyes on was none other than Dave, who apparently doesn’t need to go to the bathroom because that’s upstairs as well. Once Dave was off the steps, he looked up to the couch because _wait is that a person in my peripheral vision--_

Through a very typical, very awkward display, the two brothers made eye contact through their shades. Yes, plural; Dave was wearing his as well, because, again, at least 40% of a Strider’s personality came from his shades. The two of them flicked their vision around the room, trying to figure out what to say. 

Dave sighed, “Hey man, I know I shouldn’t be, but I’m glad I’m not the only one unable to sleep tonight.”

_Well, start the train and drive it off the tracks why don’t ya?_

Dirk blinked at the sudden burst of words from his younger brother, “O-Oh, well, if it’s any consolation, so am I.”

Then, it was back to an awkward silence. Dammit, if he didn’t calm down, Dirk’s hands were going to get shaky to the point someone could safely assume that he was about to freeze to death (it kind of felt like that, to be honest). In the midst of blanking out due to relentless panic, Dirk nearly jumped when he felt the couch dip next to him. Pulling his hands away from that side of him, he looked up at Dave, who was staring directly in front of himself in thought.

Uhh…

Dave started speaking without warning. It was an endless, torent of words that spilled out of his mouth, and Dirk couldn’t do anything other than listen even if he wanted to speak.

“Sooo, it was a pretty bad nightmare. Typical business and all that jazz. All my friends dead, people telling me it’s my fault with blood dripping down their face. And I know I probably shouldn’t just dump this shit on you for no reason, you were the one that let me stay here when I should be rotting in my grave LaLonde style, but I figured fuck it, ya know? If we’re going to try and make this brother thing work, then we gotta start somewhere. And that’s the kicker, about this whole situation, my nightmare ended with my Bro.”

Dirk tensed for a moment, but hopefully, Dave didn’t feel it. If he did, he didn’t let it show in his voice or face. Their other selves were something not thought of often, and why would they? Nobody else likes to talk about their respective situations, and the Striders’ one involved a _looooot_ of angst and trauma for multiple reasons.

“I know that what he did was shitty, and I get just about everyone I know would probably kick his ass if he were here, part of me supports it, but the other part? Remembers the good moments too. The movie nights, fist bumps, hell, when he actually trained me and gave good advice that was actually pretty decent. So why did life have to go and fuck that up, huh? Why did life have to get even shittier after that? I don’t know why I’m losing it tonight of all times, but here we are--”

As Dave continued his rant, Dirk kept listening, but his eyes trailed down to the parts of Dave that moved. Mainly his arms, which was being waved around wildly to emphasize a great many things. Eventually, Dirk looked at the limbs attached to the end of those limbs and made an interesting discovery.

Dave’s hands… were shaking.

Just like Dirk’s.

Not as bad as Dirk’s, no, that’s not possible. However, if there was anything to be said about how Dave’s hands shook, it was that it was more restrained and hidden than Dirk’s normally were. Depending on how you see it, Dave’s shaking could be worse for that reason alone.

Dirk’s eyes widened. Despite it all, they’ve found something in common. Or at least Dirk did.

But Dave wasn’t done, “But I guess the reason I came to you is that you remind me of those good parts.” Dirk blinked while Dave found it in himself to grin, “We’re both worried about how we look to each other and how we match up and shit, but I guess I should take this time to finally say it. You’re pretty chill, and, yeah.”

Dave slumped in semi-exhaustion. He’s explained all he could at the moment, and everything else was just jumbles in his mind. If he tried explaining those thoughts, chances are, it would just sound like he was stroking out. He rubbed his eyes behind his shades before bringing his hand down to his lap and grabbing the other one, leaving them there and staring at the empty air in front of him.

Dirk, in a great moment of word comprehension, took a deep breath. With his arm and hand that wasn’t as shaky as before, he ever so slowly brought it around Dave’s shoulders. When Dave tensed up, so did he, but right before he could panic and bring it back, Dave relaxed and even _leaned back into it_ a little bit. Dirk may or may not have sighed in relief. Maybe even a handful of times.

Dirk ended the moment with words of wisdom, “Well, the internet says people like you should feel conflicted. That’s normal. And I’m glad I can apparently live up to those expectations of certain parts of your Bro like you do mine,” Dave’s breath hitched, “I only hope I can make it worth your time.”

After a couple of moments of silence, Dave did what he knew best: joked, “This is so sappy, dude. I hope you know it’s sappy.”

Dirk just shrugged, somehow still managing to hide the mixture of pride and panic in his chest from Dave, “Eh, I only had those shitty drama-tween movies from Roxy to base life on for awhile. I’m just happy you haven’t broken out in song yet.”

Dave froze for a second again, and Dirk thought, ‘Fuck, I ruined it.’

Then, Dave pounced, making them fall over onto the couch. Dirk was laying on his back, putting his arms up to protect himself from the playful swats Dave mustered up as he yelled in objection, “How _dare_ you compare my life to one of those shitty, drama-filled movies?! I’m _wounded,_ Dirk!”

Dirk screamed back with a grin in pure sarcasm, “Then rewind time and make your life not like one, asshole! It’s not my fault parts of our life sound like they come from bad fanfic!”

After some more laughter and swats, Dave eventually laid down on top of Dirk, both of them breathing heavily. They were still grinning, and frankly, as cheesy as it was, they found that it wasn’t too bad. Not the greatest, but it was… quaint, in a way.

Then, Dirk heard snoring and lost his grin.

Looking down to his chest, he saw his brother in dreamland, already drooling on his shirt. Ugh, dammit, Dave, I’m giving you my laundry this week now. Yet… it was nice seeing him so calm. He was no longer on high alert, waiting for anyone to pry into his deep dark secrets. This is what Dave looked like when he truly felt safe. It was very rare, and only a handful of people could probably reach this point in a relationship with him.

To think _Dirk_ could make something like that was unbelievable, especially considering their pasts and all that Grade-A horseshit. Yet, here they were.

Putting his arm around Dave again and closing his eyes, Dirk thought about everything that made this night go well. He’ll want to remember it in great detail, after all, he wants to keep Dave looking like that: safe, warm, _happy._ The bar might not be set too high, but that gives him all the more incentive to just break it over his knees and rebuild it into something great.

He too started to snore alongside his brother very soon.

Later in the morning, two blonde LaLondes managed to figure out where their little arsonist went and ended up in Dirk’s place of all things. They weren’t expecting that, and they certainly weren’t expecting to walk in and see them cuddling on the fucking couch. The sight was enough to make them lose their anger just enough to wait to bring the pain train until Dave woke up.

They’ll probably want breakfast when they wake up, won’t they?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lmao im trash bcuz im probably the only one to take this oppurtunity to write _homestuck_ whump
> 
> please let me know of any glaring typos! criticism is okay as long as it is given respectfully~
> 
> If you wish to scream at me here's my [main tumblr](https://halorocks1214.tumblr.com/)
> 
> And while youre at it heres my [whump blog](https://whumpitlikeitshot.tumblr.com/)


	3. Explosion

Tomoe always told him, “Deja vu is a bitch.”

He’s running like all hell broke loose with a bomb in his hands, and all Kotetsu can think of is that Barnaby would say something similar. Too bad he’s not here to rip Kotetsu a new one, for better or worse. Kotetsu is still undecided about that. Half the deja vu is gone because, as stated, said boyfriend’s not here, and there was also the fact that Kotetsu was also not trapped in the tiny ass air vents of a building. At least he’s got that going for him.

All he wanted to do was go out and eat. Really. It wasn’t even anything extravagant, he just wanted a sandwich from his favorite place in the mall food court. He certainly didn’t want some random asshole to leave a suspicious suitcase on one of the tables. He absolutely didn’t want some random kid to check it out, and certainly didn’t want the kid’s mother to scream in terror and panic with one simple word.

_“BOMB!”_

Leaping over the guard rope that signifies the line waiting to order food and people who aren’t, Kotetsu pushed his powers and yoinked the suitcase, making a beeline to outside. It took him about 10 seconds to make it outside, and 20 more to run somewhere without people? Shit, there were _so_ many people. Even the harbor that he chose to dispose of the weapon, workers idly sat on their lunch breaks playing card games, confused as all hell when Wild Tiger zipped past them in nothing but a blur.

With 5 seconds left in his powers, he got to the end of the pier and chucked the explosive like a baseball. In his attempt to run as far away as possible, the bomb did what it does best and exploded. Kotetsu felt the heat, but he won’t have any lasting burns. No, most of the damage came from Kotetsu, who was a normal, non-powered human now, being flung about 10 feet forward and him tumbling. But before that, he, of course, had to crack his head on the ground.

Yeesh, this isn’t the first time he’s gotten a head injury, and it’s probably not even the worst (though it’s ranking up there quite a bit), but that feeling is always the same, no matter how bad. The void between life and death, sort of. Dramatic as shit, but bear with him. 

He was in that peaceful blanket of blackness when, all of a sudden, his head seemingly burned with the fury of a thousand suns. Blearily opening his eyes, he could see blurs of colors slowly start to form into his surroundings. Some people off in the distance were shocked and concerned. Carefully lifting his head while stifling groans and hisses, he watched as a little bit of red overtake his vision as well. Of course, he’s bleeding. You can’t have a head injury without blood nowadays, according to his life.

He tried getting up on all fours so he could move to at least his knees, but right when he pushed up with his elbows, fatigue rammed him like a truck and made him fall back over. It was very hard, but he managed to hold back the need to vomit. His perseverance came from not wanting to ruin his new shirt. Kaede got him this, and if he was already going to get black charred marks and gravel in it, he sure as hell wasn’t going to vomit on it. Instead of sitting up like his original plan, he just rolled over onto his back to look at the sky.

He squinted up at the clouds, trying to entertain himself with the shapes. And to mainly distract himself from more nausea and the blinding light. Ow ow ow… Maybe he should’ve kept his face in the dirt. It doesn’t taste very good, but at least it was _soft_ and _dark_ and not _tinted with red_ and _painful_ like his vision is now.

“So _this_ is where the heroic tiger ran off to.”

Oh shit, was he blacking out again? It sort of felt like he was woken up by that familiar smooth voice. He had to blink a few times as well to regain clarity. Slowly turning his head, he saw an even more familiar flame-based superhero costume. He grinned, “At least I didn’t end up in the water. Blue Rose gave me such shit for ruining her ice patterns that night.”

Fire Emblem leaned over into his vision, “Howdy. Next time, leave the fireworks to me, alright?”

Finally closing his eyes, Kotetsu tasted a hint of copper, “Nah, you have all the fun. I want in on it.”

Nathan placed their arms underneath their friend, picking him up bridal style, “Well, in that case, at least invite me along. Considering this stunt, I’d love to see what else you’ve got up your sleeve.”

Nathan walked in silence for the next minute or so, Kotetsu curled in their arms. Right before he could fall into laa laa land, Kotetsu leaned his face into his friend’s chest, “Hey… nobody got hurt other than me, right?” 

“Oh darling,” Nathan sighed with a smile, “You did wonderful as always.”

As darkness overtook him, Kotetsu let out a chuckle, “You’re damn right I did.”

\---

Waking up in the hospital bed was a given at this point, as well as the soreness, much to Kotetsu’s dismay.

Yet, something that always manages to surprise him, despite the number of times it’s happened so far, was feeling warmth in his general vicinity. No, it wasn’t the blanket either. That shit is thin as hell. The real source was a familiar blonde-haired, glasses-wearing mother hen, who had eye bags much like Kotetsu’s own. Barnaby’s head rested on the bed’s edge right next to Kotetsu’s hand.

After looking at Barnaby for a couple of seconds, Kotetsu looked around the room and noticed a couple of things on the side table. There was a variety of flowers and cards sitting there, right next to a styrofoam cup of water. There was even a cheap, heart-shaped balloon with the words _GET WELL!_ on it. Now, Barnaby might actually be a lot more dramatic than he appears in his interviews, but not even he would be crazy enough to be a _singular person_ to get all that.

Nope, Kotetsu knew exactly where all that stuff came from, and he could only <s>hope for</s> assume there was more on the way. Looking back at Barnaby, Kotetsu lifted his hand and placed it on the younger man’s head. 

Running his hand through Barnaby’s hair gently and watching the sleeping boyfriend gain a small grin on his face, Kotetsu couldn’t help but mimic it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is your daily reminder that tiger and bunny is a vry good show and it honestly has a whole lot of whump potential between the two main characters
> 
> please let me know of any missed typos! criticism is okay as long as you give it respectfully~
> 
> If you wish to scream at me here's my [main tumblr](https://halorocks1214.tumblr.com/)
> 
> And while youre at it heres my [whump blog](https://whumpitlikeitshot.tumblr.com/)


	4. Delirium

Maybe Kon was right that he shouldn’t be out here.

But Tim was regardless of that statement, and Kon can’t tell him no anymore so there’s that. 

_“You have a 101-degree fever dude, that’s not healthy!” Yeah, well, name five things in the past two to three years that have been healthy for me, dude._

Sitting on the edge of the roof with his trusty binoculars, Tim watched the store across the street very carefully. He got wind of a robbery taking place there tonight. Considering the string of thieveries that have been occurring recently, Tim used his wonderful IQ and deduced that it was going to be the same people.

Well, same people or not, he came back to reality at the sound of breaking glass. Dammit, he was dozing off. Shaking off the fatigue, Tim squinted through his tool to watch three idiot-criminals break the front window and somehow not set off the alarm. Oh wait, the store didn’t have one based on Tim’s scan. Tim’s half tempted to let the place be pillaged for that reason alone.

Nah, he’s an asshole, not a criminal. He’s going to stop them, despite how much his joints were screaming at him.

Putting the binoculars away and pulling out his bo staff, he leaped over the ledge in glorious Red Robin fashion and twirled. With a larger thud than necessary, the three criminals looked up from what they were doing to see one of the infamous masked vigilantes perched atop the street lamp, glaring at them with two white eyes of fury. It scared them so bad they nearly dropped the TV two of them were carrying.

Shaking off their fear, they got angry. Tim grinned. Good. If they get mad, they’ll be even more stupid than before, making his night easy. As the three criminals started barking with no bite (“Hey, who do you think you are?!”), Tim waited until they were only a few feet away from the base of the street light to leap off in a front flip for style. He nailed the landing right on one of the guys’ backs, slamming them face down into the ground and knocking them out cold.

One of the other two immediately backed off, preparing to run when Tim snapped his head up to look at them. Shrieking, the guy tried running away. Too bad, since Tim ran after him and sweep kicked him, making him fall over and cracking his head against the concrete. That’s two out of the game, now, time for the other--

A snowball-sized rocked dinked him on the back of the head. With a groan that resembled the word ‘fuck’, Tim looked back rapidly at the last criminal, who managed to finally find his bite for the fight. Now, most other nights, Tim would’ve simply shrugged it off and kicked his ass, then finished it by tying everyone up in a ball for the police to handle before disappearing off into the night.

But the Holy Trinity of being sick, getting rammed in the back of the head with a hard object, and then immediately making himself dizzy by turning around too quickly just had to stick its foot out and trip him up. 

Life’s a bitch.

Tim was keenly aware that he was laying on his back, looking up at the sky in a daze. While he also registered the footsteps and dark laughter, he was too tired to do anything about it. The biggest part that sucked was the fact that he’s done worse fights sicker than this. Why the hell did his body have to double down and be weak right now?

Accepting his ass-kicking like a champ, Tim was caught off guard when the last criminal shrieked like the devil was about to steal his soul. It was a worse shriek than the first one he made when he first saw Red Robin. What the hell could make the guy shriek with an even _higher_ pitch? Well, the answer would be two streaks that zipped past Tim overhead. One blue and black, and the other mostly tan and grey with a dot of red at the top.

Mother… _fucker._

Right before Tim could lose consciousness, he heard the two of them talk as they walked towards him. Jesus, did they really take the guy down that quickly?

“--sure am glad those two Titans contacted us. Yeesh. It must be bad if _they_ called _us_ for help.”

The one that picked up Tim in a bridal carry-- Dick, obviously-- nodded his head, “I’ll be sure to thank Kon and Bart greatly the next time I see them. You got a house nearby?”

Jason holstered his weapons, “Yup, just follow me, Big Bird.”

Meanwhile, Tim thought of all the ways he could get his revenge on Kon and Bart as he drifted off due to aching pains and a raging fever.

_Fucking… betrayed. Your shirts… will be dyed… a shitty brown color… mark my words..._

\---

Judging by how he can’t feel his limbs due to inactivity and the cool cloth on his forehead, Tim figures he’s been out for quite a while.

Sitting up, the cloth slithered off his head and fell into his lap, all the while he adjusted his senses to take in his surroundings. He was very much in one of Red’s houses, as seen by the pile of dirty laundry in the corner of the room. Twitching his eye in annoyance (_Wow, couldn’t even clean up for a guest, Red?_), he suddenly caught wind of the semi-argument, semi-rant coming from the other room.

“--you weren’t there! You didn’t see it happen before your very eyes, Jason!”

“Yes, I know! I also know that screaming about it while he’s trying to sleep isn’t going to help any of us!”

Alright, something happened. From the way they’re talking, it was Tim who caused whatever’s got Dick in a fit. Which could be anything at this point. Dick could hear Tim breathe weirdly and immediately lose his shit. Tim had no reason to think anything out of the ordinary happened outside of, you know, being horribly sick.

“I’m the reason he’s thinking that stuff! How _else_ am I supposed to handle it?!”

“Well, if you just want to play the blame game it’s partly my fault too! But right now, as I had just said, stop yelling! Do you want him to hear you?!”

Okay… that was a little more descriptive than before, but again, it could mean anything. Dick could probably find a way to blame the dinosaurs going extinct on himself. Thinking as the two brothers continued to ramble, Tim regained his thoughts from the past… jeez, was it really days? From what he’s remembering, it looked like days. Great, that’s so much paperwork to deal with now!

Then, it hit Tim like a freight train what he could possibly blame Dick for.

That freight train consisted of a handful of words from Tim himself as Dick tried so hard to just keep his fever down.

_“Nuuuuu…”_

_Dick sighed, “Sorry, Timmy, but we have to do this. Nothing else is bringing it down.”_

_Tim still swatted despite already being carried and halfway to the bathroom, “Yuv nevr bothrd befor…”_

_Dick froze for a moment in guilt but sped up when he started to move again, “Yeah, I know, and I can’t tell you how much I’m sorry. All I can do is slowly make up for it like right now.”_

_Tim’s subconscious realized this was a fight it wasn’t going to win, so it just made him curl up in a way that had him facing away from Dick’s chest. There was silence for the rest of the journey to the bathroom. Right as Dick placed Tim in the tub that he filled before coming to get his younger brother, said younger brother murmured out four words._

_“...‘sides... Not wurth it.”_

_That time, Dick froze. He was genuinely at a loss. He knew of Tim’s self-esteem, anybody with eyes could see it, but still, having to _hear_ it from Tim himself like it was _normal_ just… hurt a lot, “Timmy… how much of that do you actually believe?”_

_Tim just shook his head in response, somehow managing to curl even more in on himself in the tub, just like a small child scared out of their wits would._

_The rest of the cool-down bath consisted of Dick being very meticulously, mainly due to guilt. It almost felt that if he touched Tim wrong, those dark thoughts would somehow get worse by his mere presence._

_Scratch that, at this point, that was exactly the problem._

Tim was brought out of his memory at the sound of a door opening. Looking up from his lap, he watched as Dick walked quietly into the room with a glass of water.

“Oh, shit--” Dick stuttered and nearly dropped the glass before clearing his throat and regaining his composure. Walking over to Tim, he sat down in a chair next to the bed, “I thought you would like this.” He placed the glass on the table with a ‘plop’.

Tim watched all of this with a keen eye, waiting for an opportunity. After a few moments of awkward silence and Dick keeping his eyes on the floor in shame, Tim sighed, “It wasn’t…”

Dick snapped his head up to look at Tim, who was pinching the bridge of his nose in a mixture of exhaustion and desperation. Despite it, Tim continued to talk up his point, “I mean, to say it wasn’t you wouldn’t be true,” Dick flinched, “But it’s also unfair to say it was _all_ you too.”

Dick raised his eyebrows while Tim continued his statement, “You know I’ve seen shitty things. Been through them too, and Damian becoming Robin _was_ smart in the end. It was the only way to make sure that little one doesn’t brutally murder the next criminal, I’d say,” Dick snorted, “And this is getting longer than I’d like so I guess I’ll just say: one day, I’ll be okay. _We’ll_ be okay, alright? It might take a while, but that day will come eventually. It’ll be a rough ride, but you of all people should understand that it’ll be worth it in the end.”

Looking away with red cheeks, Tim picked up the glass of water and gulped about ¾ of it down his throat. Setting the glass back on the table, Tim bit the bullet and looked up back at Dick. The older brother was clearly flabbergasted, just as Tim expected, but he was also fidgeting in his chair. It looked like he wanted to do something but wasn’t sure if it was okay.

Dick scooted closer, lifting up his arms awkwardly, “Can I?…”

Oh…

_Oh._

Tim rolled his eyes before quickly leaning into Dick briefly. The older brother, after a moment of shock, wrapped his arms gently around Tim. Only for a second, though. Tim immediately left it and looked at Dick’s face with a cheeky grin, “You can have a longer one if you make me food.”

Blinking a few times, Dick found his own eyes rolling as well, “Alright, princess, do you like your eggs sunnyside up?”

Jason, who just made his presence known, shouted from behind the door, “Nope! Scrambled only in this household! Anyone who disobeys is a weenie!”

Dick very quickly switched to his other persona of being annoyed as hell due to his younger siblings, “Jason! We’re you listening to us the entire time?” With a leap, Dick shot out of his chair and out the room, followed by Jason letting out a slight shriek. Clearly, he wasn’t expecting Dick to actually try anything.

Meanwhile, Tim just laid back down on his back with his hands between the pillow and the back of his head. He found himself at peace for once. Not terrible, not great, but at peace. Hopefully, he’ll feel this way all the time in the future.

For right now, he’ll just deal with his two older brothers. Eventually, he’ll have to go make sure Dick doesn’t either kill Jason or burn down the safe house due to his lack of kitchen etiquette.

But this bed is pretty comfy, especially for one in Jason’s safe house. He’s good laying here for just a little while longer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aah Timmy. ive always felt some weird connection to you. of course i show my love by constantly bringing up your worst insecurities and beating you the fuck up
> 
> if there are any typos please let me know! im okay with criticism as long as you give it nicely~
> 
> If you wish to scream at me here's my [main tumblr](https://halorocks1214.tumblr.com/)
> 
> And while youre at it heres my [whump blog](https://whumpitlikeitshot.tumblr.com/)


	5. Human Shield

‘Dumbass, class morality bullcrap. It’s all a bunch of horseshit! It’s just-- Aagghh!!!’

Midoriya watched as Bakugou probably swore up a storm in his own head. Midoriya can’t read minds, but judging by Bakugou’s face and clenched teeth, he was trying really hard to not fry the bags he was currently carrying. He was succeeding so far, so Midoriya will give him that.

Midoriya was currently carrying two bags full of two-liter soda bottles in one hand, and the other one sported a milk jug. Bakugou was easily carrying four bags of stuff in each hand, but most of it was bags of chips and bread, so it evened out in the long run. 

Somehow, when everyone drew straws, Midoriya and Bakugou got the two shortest, meaning they had to be the duo who went out to grab everything on the snack list for the week. Honestly, it was sweet to see how much they cared for their safety when everyone offered to take either Midoriya’s or Bakugou’s place. It was panic on levels of when a girl and Mineta got grouped together.

Nobody got tied up like Mineta usually does, though. Midoriya and Bakugou had the decency to promise to not get into their usual shenanigans. That being breaking out into violent fights. You know, typical day that ends in Y.

All of a sudden, footsteps approached from behind them. In an instant, both dropped what they were carrying and turned around. Midoriya pushed One For All and Bakugou’s hands were sparking like mad. Whoever approached them was about to have hell rained down over their heads whether they deserved it or not.

Judging by how the person in question was running at the heroes with a knife, they could safely assume that, yes, they did deserve it. Bakugou very easily walked forward and blasted the dude. From how they bounced back, fell on their butt and dropped the knife, any injury will only sting for a few days. Bakugou attacked with the intent to just take the assailant off their feet, nothing more, nothing less.

The sound of a click behind Midoriya made him turn around again. He widened his eyes at the sight. It was another person similar to the first one, but instead of a knife, they were holding a gun. Fear and worry filled Izuku’s body when he realized the person was aiming at Bakugou. It was made worse when he realized Bakugou wouldn’t turn around in time.

“Kachann!”

Midoriya ran at Bakugou, who was shocked and a little annoyed at the interruption. Before he could say, “What the fuck?!” Izuku wrapped himself around his childhood friend and tensed. As they fell over, a sensation that could be described as a mixture between a stab and a punch hit Midoriya’s back, knocking the air out of him.

This made Midoriya suddenly aware of one detail: he’s never been shot before.

He’s broken practically all his body at one point or another, and his self-esteem is so low it can be described as underneath the floor, but in his entire run of having a quirk, he’s never been _shot_ with a _gun._ Out of all the sensations he would expect, peaceful bliss was not one of them.

No, really. Maybe something similar to a gun may have struck him at one point (certain moments are fuzzy nowadays), but an _actual_ gun? This is a first. There was a slight burning sensation around the area where he thinks he was hit, but outside of that, his whole body was numb. It was as if the bullet had transported his psyche into another world and kept his physical body in the normal world.

What’s the word? Dissociating, that’s right. It sort of felt like that.

Oh, wait, the burning sensation was getting worse! As he gained more and more clarity, his wound gained more and more _pain._ Instead of a low burn, it was fiery hot. Someone could take a nearly-molten metal stick and put it against his bare skin and that would probably hurt less. Well, he might be exaggerating a tad bit, but it just hurt _that _damn much.

Opening his eyes and somehow succeeding, Midoriya noticed he was propped over something. Feeling the way he was being held, he deduced that he was on someone’s back with his arms over their shoulders and his knees around their waist being gripped to the point that the circulation of blood was being cut off. Midoriya felt hair under his chin, and when he was aware of how _spiky_ it was, he realized _who_ was carrying him.

He groaned out, “Kaaachnnn…”

The boy in question hissed, “Shut up, dweeb. If you talk you’ll bleed out faster.”

Midoriya grinned. That was a very Kachann response, “Hspitl?”

Bakugou continued to march forward with a purpose, “Nah, I’m taking you back to the dorms. You can just sleep this off-- where do you think, dumbass?!”

Right before be passed out, Midoriya found it in himself to grip Katsuki a little tighter and grin.

\---

“Thanks to your quick thinking, you managed to bring your friend to us in time. The bullet miraculously didn’t hit anything vital, but he did lose a lot of blood. He’ll need to stay for a couple of days to make sure there isn’t any long-lasting damage.”

Bakugou numbly nodded throughout the doctor’s explanation, and when he called Aizawa, he did the same motions.

“Dammit, I wasn’t aware they’d go for ours just yet... A couple of students were expelled in class 1-D, and we’ve received reports of them going around and attacking other students in the school. I was hoping they wouldn’t get to our class, let alone do that much damage… Regardless, I’ll call someone to come pick you up. Sit tight and don’t explode anything.”

Right before Bakugou could object, Aizawa hung up. “Goddamn old man…” Katsuki swore, shoving his phone back into his pocket. Looking at the hospital bed in front of him, he examined Midoriya. The boy was pale, and it looked like if he was poked he would shatter, but he was also _breathing._ He was also sleeping on his side, go figure. Bakugou could clearly see his sleeping face. It was way too peaceful for someone who just got fucking _shot._

Bakugou wasn’t right next to the bed, but the chair he was sitting in was close enough to be able to at least touch the railing on the sides. With a sigh, Katsuki leaned forward with his hands. He didn’t know why he felt so conflicted. Midoriya was right there! Breathing just like the weakling he was! There’s no reason for Katsuki to still feel this “anxious” or whatever.

He must’ve been staring/glaring too hard at Izuku because when the green-haired boy opened his eyes, he widened them for a moment before bringing them back down to their tired, exhausted state. With a smile, he whispered out two words that gained the attention of the explosion-hero before falling back asleep.

“Thanks, Kachann…”

Bakugou flinched and leaned back, crossing his arms, “Pshh, whatever.”

A few minutes later, Mitsuki came into the room to see the two boys sleeping peacefully. While she didn’t know this, the chair Bakugou was in was moved a little closer to the bed as well, allowing Bakugou to lay his head on the table to sleep <s>and drool</s>. To her, she could just assume that the chair was always that close before she came in. 

She couldn’t help the snort that came out of her mouth.

She and Inko were always saddened by the boys’ strained relationship, but as the days went on, the rift ever so slowly mended. They would watch with careful eyes to make sure it stayed on track. One day, the two of them will come to an understanding of some sort.

One day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> midoriya and bakugou's relationship is always fun to explore. gotta make sure when you do one of them gets put through whumpy scenarios!
> 
> please let me know of any glaring typos! criticism is allowed as long as your respectful about it~
> 
> If you wish to scream at me here's my [main tumblr](https://halorocks1214.tumblr.com/)
> 
> And while youre at it heres my [whump blog](https://whumpitlikeitshot.tumblr.com/)


	6. Gunpoint

Dirk was a cool and collected individual. In fact, his biggest flaw was that he was usually so on top of things and knew exactly what to do that when he really _didn’t,_ he stomped his feet and crossed his arms like a small child, not accepting that he could be wrong.

He still has some issues about it, but he has been better, thankfully. But back to the topic of ‘cool and collected,’ Dirk was keeping his panic relatively lowkey for someone face to face with a robber that had a gun. All Dirk was doing was sleeping in his apartment when he heard glass shattering. Putting on his shades and walking to his technical ‘living room’, he came face to face with a singular man trying to carry out his TV.

The dude knocked over Dirk’s favorite statue too, the motherfucker.

Dirk didn’t let his anger show. Instead, he carefully brought his hands out in front of him as if he were calming a frightened animal, “Okay. Alright. There’s no need to get violent--”

“You’re right about that,” the intruder interrupted with a cocky smirk, “Just stay where you are, and I’ll be out of your hair in about 10 minutes tops.”

Dirk let out a sigh that the robber didn’t hear. Honestly, Dirk wants to pull out his powers more than anything, buuuut he also knows that paying for a few stolen items is less money than paying to fix his sliced-the-fuck-up apartment. So, Dirk stood silent and still with his hands out in front of him while the robber looked around his living area.

Dirk watched him and had to hold back a very loud shriek when some_one_ magically appeared behind the robber. Dave wiped off his pants before looking up with an open mouth. While it stayed open, he very quickly noticed the robber (who hadn’t noticed him yet) with a gun trained on his brother. With wide eyes, he slowly closed his jaw and sneakily crept towards the intruder.

Dave was originally at Jade’s place, which explains why he could teleport. But why he came _here_ of all places will have to be asked later. Especially considering that the robber felt something off and was turning around because of it.

Shit, if he noticed Dave they’d _both_ be in trouble. Dirk started pulling shit out of his ass, “Why my place?”

The dude stopped turning around and Dave froze. The intruder turned back towards Dirk, gun gleaming in the darkness, “What?”

Dirk gulped as he carefully watched Dave continue creeping, “My place is honestly kind of shitty in comparison to others around here, was there some kind of math involved behind picking my hobo-looking ass place of living?” Dirk finished with a nervous grin.

Completely oblivious to what was happening, the intruder let out a chuckle, “Well, I suppose I always appreciate those who laugh in the face of danger. I’ll be sure to speed this up for you. Appreciate it, I don’t do this for every place I rob.”

Of course, he’s serial. Why _wouldn’t_ he be?

During all of this, Dave got closer and closer. He remembered his training on where and how to place his feet to create the least amount of noise. He also used what he remembered to mask his breathing as much as possible. Dirk’s life was at stake, and lord knows what would happen if Dave fucked it up. There, the guy was looking in a drawer as Dave finally made it only a couple of inches behind him. 

As Dave raised his hand above the guy’s head, he stubbed his toe (like an idiot). 

While Dave was able to mask whatever noise he would’ve made from the pain (which would’ve been loud), the mugger heard the noise of the foot smacking against a hard object anyway. While his gun was still on Dirk, he turned his head around and noticed the other shades-wearing dude primed and ready to attack. In response, he got mad. 

“Fuck!” he yelled before quickly looking back at Dirk and pulling the trigger.

Dirk widened his eyes in shock before trying to dodge. He was mostly successful, after all, he didn’t get his face blasted like the dude probably wanted, but right as Dirk heard the dude grunt and pass out due to Dave whacking him over the head, the bullet entered Dirk’s shoulder. Boy, it hurt. It hurt a lot, and it kind of overtook any other feeling he could feel, including the feeling he should’ve felt when his butt slammed on the ground due to the recoil.

He took no time at all to bring his hand over his wound to try and slow the bleeding, biting his lip to stifle any noises he didn’t want to make. He was tearing up because of, well, _everything,_ and he tried looking at the hole in his shoulder through the corner of his eye. The tears made it even more blurry, but there were three nice trails of blood around his hand dripping down his arm, so, double yay?

It wasn’t even until Dave dropped down into his blurry vision that Dirk realized Dave was-- was _panicking?!_ Wait, that’s not normal!

“--shit shit shit, fuck! Oh my God, I should’ve just knocked him out immediately instead of letting you do that whole bullshit ‘the power of words’ monologue-- what the hell was I thinking-- dude I’m so sorry I let that happen, like-- I’m usually better-- oh Jesus, what do I do--”

Dirk watched as Dave waved his hands around Dirk as if the younger Strider were afraid to touch him while he also continued his panicked ranting. It was… unnerving, seeing Dave in such a state, even more so considering how he was so _apologetic._

Did Dave really think that this was _his_ fault?

Well, Dirk needs to find that out later. His main objective should be to calm Dave down and get actual professionals to treat his shoulder. If he can do the first thing, then the second one should be much easier.

“Dave…” That didn’t catch the brother’s attention, so Dirk inhaled and spoke louder, “_Dave._” 

There. Dave froze and finally _listened,_ giving Dirk the opening to talk, “Dude, it’s okay. You saved my literal life. Sure, I need medical attention-- which you can call for once I’m done talking-- but I’m _alive_ as well. You did good, especially considering you came over quite out of the blue. We can talk about that later, but right now, you should probably call a Wee-Woo vehicle for my shoulder, alright?”

Dave was speechless before blinking once, “Yeah, right. One sec--”

Dave stood up and zipped to the kitchen to find the nearest phone, leaving Dirk to ponder on what the fuck just happened. Even on the way to the hospital, with Dave in the ambulance saying nothing and never leaving his deep thoughts, Dirk couldn’t figure it out. Well, at least he’ll have a shit ton of hours in a hospital bed and gown to figure it out. After all, gunshot wounds are always a key factor in people questioning their lives and life choices.

That’s how it works in the movies.

\---

The pain meds were good, as always, but Dirk found himself to focus through the haziness they’re supposed to bring.

All that’s because of his brother, who was somehow seemingly relaxed as of this moment. It was a hard case of whiplash of seeing Dave grip the steering wheel with white knuckles all the way home, get out of the car to help Dirk get inside and then opening Dirk’s door with a totally nonchalant grin that spoke, ‘Everything’s alright, my dude.’

Dirk walked up the stairs with Dave right next to him even more lost.

Dave poured some drinks-- water and soda, Dirk should mention. They might be legal, but they both have iffy feelings towards the substance called alcohol, so they haven’t tried anything yet-- in the kitchen while Dirk sat on the couch in the living area, leaning on the back of the couch still trying to work through all of his thoughts. He’d love to put his hands on his chin, but his shoulder is starting to act up again and if he tries putting any pressure on the thing before his next round of pain meds he’ll probably make it worse.

Dave walked in with their drinks and gave Dirk’s to the hand with the arm not injured. He carefully sat down on the couch next to Dirk and sipped his cup of water. The silence was mainly from how they were using their mouths to drink, but that didn’t make it any less awkward.

After a few moments of Dirk mindlessly drinking from his bottle of diet soda with a straw, he eventually stopped and inquired Dave about his restless thoughts, “Hey, Dave?”

Dirk is assuming Dave hopped that his older brother didn’t see how he froze, “Uh, yeah, dude?”

Dirk took a deep breath, “I just gotta ask about the way you… _reacted…_ after I was shot.”

Dave was starting to sweat. He nervously gulped and grinned, trying to mask any of his panic, “Yeah?” his voice squeaked.

Dirk thinned his lips before getting over with it, “I just… it seemed like you were worried how _I_ would look at you. Did… did you think I would get mad at _you_ for me getting shot by some rando? Sort of… sort of like--”

“How _he_ would’ve, I mean, yeah, partially.” Dirk shut right the hell up when Dave interrupted his question. The younger Strider managed to keep his mojo and kept on explaining, “In the last year before the Sburb bullcrap, he would always drag me down over the smallest things I couldn’t do, like being able to defend my shit from intruders, so I suppose I was worried about that a little bit. Another thing was that I didn’t know how to deal with guns and gunshot wounds. I can fight God himself with swords and knives and maybe even a bazooka,” Dirk snorted, “But not simple handguns. I don’t know how to deal with those and the injuries they bring with them, which leads to the main issue, which I think is...

Dirk watched Dave wave his hands around like he normally does when he can’t find his words, but as usual, he eventually found them, “I was just worried that you were injured in general? Gunshot wounds aren’t anything to take lightly, even if the wounds are in places that seem ‘non-fatal’, so… yeah, call me cheesy, but I guess I was just worried about _you_ as well as the other things I’ve stated.”

Dirk took a second to process his brother’s words before taking a deep breath, “Oh… that makes sense. There’s a lot to unpack there, and I have no idea where to start except: you did good, Dave. I know you might not believe it right away, but you _are_ a good hero. If there’s anything positive to come from your childhood, it’s that it created a pretty kickass dude in the most roundabout way possible.”

Dave let out a small sigh and slumped a little bit when Dirk stopped talking, “Thanks, bro. That means a lot.”

Dirk nodded once before leaning back into the back of his couch, trying to get as comfortable as possible, “Now, since that’s mostly over, get me more pain meds and put some popcorn in the microwave. I wanna fall asleep to the cheesiest and most dramatic cop show possible.”

At first, Dave was confused, but as Dirk kept explaining what he wanted to do, Dave’s grin got wider and wider. Dave showed his enthusiasm with a leap off the couch, “Of course! You’re the boss, dude!”

A few minutes later, they would be sitting on the couch and mocking said cop show while gorging themselves on popcorn. Then, about half-an-hour into a break-in into a druggie’s house, Dave looked over to make another quip to get Dirk to laugh, but instead saw the older brother dead asleep, arms crossed over his chest. Looking over him flabbergasted, Dave just ended up rolling his eyes and standing.

A few seconds later, Dirk would have a blanket draped over him and the TV’s volume would be turned down low. Next to Dirk on the couch would be where Dave would sit on his phone until the call of comfortable unconsciousness beckoned him to lay down. As he drifted off, he made the realization of how _happy_ he is. Yeah, he has a shit ton of trauma and other horse-ish-shit to deal with, but with his new life, new friends, and new _family,_ he finds that he’ll be able to actually overcome it one day.

Aaaaand that was cheesy and Dave is really glad Dirk is asleep and can’t read his thoughts. If he did, Dave would be a whole lot more willing to add another few holes to his brother.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> late post is late cuz im fuckin _sick_ and actually had to call into work for the first time ever. needless to say im kind of dying and i hate this time of the year so much. at least i have whump to get me through it 
> 
> if you spot any, let me know about typos that interrupt your reading! im okay with criticism as long as its respectful~
> 
> If you wish to scream at me here's my [main tumblr](https://halorocks1214.tumblr.com/)
> 
> And while youre at it heres my [whump blog](https://whumpitlikeitshot.tumblr.com/)


	7. Dragged Away

Donald and Goofy yelling his name was a pretty big indication something wrong was about to happen.

What was an even bigger one was something cold and snake-like slithering around his ankle and lifting Sora upward. Dangling upside down in the air for a moment while yelling, Sora watched Donald and Goofy fight off the heartless they were dealing with so they could run to his help. Right as Donald cast a simple fire spell, the heartless that had Sora in its grasp started to make a beeline for the forest they were fighting near.

Sora’s shrieks got even higher-pitched, and the last noise he heard before getting yanked into the trees was Goofy and Donald shouting his name. Again. After a few seconds, the only thing that reached Sora’s ears was the sound of the wind as he flew threw the air. The entire time this went down, Sora swiped and jabbed and stabbed his keyblade in an attempt to free himself, but nothing prevailed. The monster’s grip was tight, and the only way Sora was getting out of this was if he fought like crazy when the monster eventually let him go.

And it did do that... by tossing him about ten feet and then letting him tumble a few more. He stopped when he thudded his face against the ground, leaving it there in the cold dirt for a few seconds before remembering, ‘Oh, right, giant heartless wants to _kill me._’

Standing up and priming his keyblade, Sora examined his attacker. What he saw knocked the air out of him. He honestly couldn’t describe it in a way that could possibly properly picture it. It was about the size of two cars, and its main body was just one big glob of black material that normal heartless are made of. It had two glowing, yellow eyes, and its mouth was some weird light blue color, surrounded by jagged edges in the shape of sharp teeth. It had about 4 arms that were just giant tentacles, and its legs were similar, except those tentacles were much smaller and there was about, oh, a rough guesstimate would be _100 times_ more legs than how many arms it had.

Sora trembled due to a mixture of the sight and how cold it was.

Shaking it off, Sora ran towards it. He had a fight to win right now, he could scream in fear in his typical ways later. With a leap, he gripped his keyblade around the handle and swiped. It landed and left a nice cut too, but the heartless just slightly groaned at most. In retaliation, one of the tips of its arms sharped into a sort of spear-like shape and jabbed at Sora. The keyblade user dodged just in time, but it still scrapped him a little bit. Sora hissed at his skin being cut open, but he never tripped or faltered. Instead, he landed and ran for a sec before going in for another attack.

For the next uncertain amount of time later, the two of them went at it in similar ways. Sora would swipe and make a cut, then the heartless would jab and make a cut, rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat. At one point, Sora made a cut deeper than any other one he’s made so far and the heartless would freeze. Landing on his feet and turning around, Sora didn’t even consider any sort of foul play. He charged and leaped.

The boy thought he had won and gleefully held his keyblade above himself ready to attack, but, as stated, he wasn’t thinking about any kind of secret move. Right before Sora could strike it, one of its tentacle arms came up behind Sora and grabbed him around the waist. Sora expected it to throw him again, or maybe even just play with him like a doll. What he wasn’t expecting was for the heartless to start _squeezing_ his diaphragm to the point of no return.

It squeezed and squeezed and boy was it _tight._ Sora felt each inch of his body be compressed inwards as the heartless never relented. The noises that came from Sora would be funny if this thing wasn’t about to kill him. To add to the pain, the heartless slammed Sora into a tree as hard as possible, managing to pull another gasp out of the already-winded boy. It still kept constricting the small keyblade wielder, and in response, Sora’s hope meter dwindled as time went on.

The next thing that happened could be described as a dramatic movie scene. As Sora’s arms relaxed and dropped to be slack at his sides, the noise of magic came from a few feet away. The attacks struck the heartless right in the back. It shrieked and screamed and thankfully let Sora go by roughly dropping him. As Sora laid down on his side, he blearily opened his to watch the heartless re-aim its rage towards two familiar faces. One with a shield, and the other with a staff.

Sora couldn’t stop the chuckle that came from him, even though it aggravated his chest.

The last thing Sora heard before finally going to the land of the dark was the dying wails of the heartless and rapid footsteps towards his position. Despite everything hurting, he found it in himself to smile. He was picked up in a bridal carry, and then, there was finally bliss.

\---

He woke up on a makeshift bed, a small campfire roaring a few feet away.

Carefully sitting up, Sora groaned as his body screamed at him. Ow ow ow, man, having no mana sure sucks a lot, and that horde that attacked them must have made them use up a ridiculous amount of potions. Hopefully, that explained the size of the heartless that attacked him: it was the Queen of some sort. For right now, Sora was left to deal with his injuries in a non-magical way. Donald and Goofy were nowhere to be seen at the campsite, so Sora safely assumed they were off trying to find healing items for him.

Rolling his shoulders (with great difficulty), Sora examined his body. He might not understand injuries the way The King or Riku or Kairi or even Donald does, but he does have a brain, and brains always tell you two things almost all the time: _this hurts_ and _this doesn’t._

The main source of misery happened to be his back, which, from what he remembers from the fight, is understandable. His back got scratched up, and that was before he got tossed like a limp ragdoll. Another minor thing, but still noticeable, was his joints and limbs. They didn’t burn like his back, but they were definitely _sore._ Swinging a keyblade around was no joke, but Sora usually drank a potion after every fight immediately, so the soreness never got a chance to set it.

But alas, there are the occasional fights where he can’t do that. It’s the same thing with Goofy, and even Donald’s mana sometimes. It’s nothing too awful, but the fact that Sora got beat up certainly didn’t do him any favors. Alright, his back is starting to freak out due to him sitting up. Tactfully and slowly, Sora laid back down and watched the starry sky.

After a few minutes, and right before he could re-doze off, he heard footsteps walk towards him. Panic overtook him, and his first response to panic is to find what’s causing it. Too bad to see _anything_ Sora had to sit up. The fact that he sat up rapidly didn’t help anything in any shape or form. He curled in on himself with a hiss, and he really couldn’t tell if that made his back better or worse.

“Sora! Woah! Take it easy, there’s nothing attacking you.”

“It’s just your pals, Donald and I, there’s no need to get worked up anymore.”

Ever so slowly uncurling, Sora looked up at his pseudo-fathers with a grin. Small tears were forming in the corners of his eyes, but he managed to keep them from falling. His arms held onto his stomach, “Whew, thank Zeus… Man, if you slowpokes took any longer… ”

Donald and Goofy glanced at one another before rolling their eyes with a smile. Even in pain, Sora always tried cheering everybody up with cheeky jokes. Goofy sat on his right while Donald plopped over on his left, pulling out an entire Elixir, just for Sora. The keyblade-wielder’s eyes widened like a small child’s at the sight. 

Donald handed it over to him, keeping a cheeky attitude the entire time, “You better be grateful, we don’t just get Elixirs for anybody.”

As Sora took in the golden goodness, he didn’t even miss a beat, “Aww, you think that highly of me? I’m so flattered, you guys!”

Donald snickered as best he could, “Yup, we sure do, Sora. We sure do.”

The rest of the night was spent telling funny stories next to the fire, Sora actually being able to swat his friends whenever they ripped into him, and Donald and Goofy maybe not-so-slightly holding back their swats when Sora ripped into them the same way.

Eventually, Sora was finally able to pass out again. Donald and Goofy smirked at how their friend slightly drooled while doing so. May Sora never change. Ever. The next to follow Sora in the idea of getting shut-eye was Donald, who, despite getting a Potion and an Ether, he used a lot of will power to take down the heartless that nabbed Sora.

Goofy eventually followed his companions after getting another blanket from their inventory and draping over Sora. Crawling into his own sleeping bag, Goofy drifted off with a big grin.

They were idiots, but they were each other’s idiots, and he wouldn’t have it any other way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _I WAS SO BUSY WRITING OTHER CHAPTERS I FORGOT TO POST THIS ONE AAAAAAAAA--_
> 
> let me know of any glaring typos! criticism is okay as long as youre nice about it~
> 
> If you wish to scream at me here's my [main tumblr](https://halorocks1214.tumblr.com/)
> 
> And while youre at it heres my [whump blog](https://whumpitlikeitshot.tumblr.com/)


	8. Isolation

“Hey, the food’s here.”

Tim nodded and yawned, “Yeah, okay, let me finish this…”

Cassie watched as her friend slowly got refocused on his computer and papers. With a sigh, she left Tim to his quiet, lonely solitude. It hurt, sometimes, just how much her leader closed himself off. She knows it’ll be a while before they even get halfway to the root of his problems, but still, it sucked so much to see him like that.

Back in the office, Tim wrote a couple of things down on one paper before looking back up to his computer screen to see what he needed to do next. Blinking a few times, he had to set his pen down to rub his eyes behind his glasses. Contrary to popular belief, he didn’t like shutting himself off from the world, but deep down inside himself, he knew part of it was necessary.

He’s forced himself and his problems on a lot of people. People who didn’t really need to deal with it. He can’t take that back, but he can prevent it from happening again. The solitude and isolation allow him the peace he needs to plan for every possible outcome. He can’t avoid all human interaction anymore, mainly because he’s not so much of an asshole that he would leave his team high and dry without a leader, and Bruce, Dick, Jason, and even Damian would just chase him down eventually. 

But when he remembers what happened due to his interference, he also realizes that the amount of interaction should probably be the least amount he can have that gets things done and also doesn’t raise an alarming amount of suspicion. Not _no_ suspicion whatsoever, that’s not possible with the people he’s met, but as long as it’s only enough to keep them mildly concerned, then Tim figures he’s doing something right.

If that involves more isolation than even he’s comfortable with, then fine. He can find ways to distract himself from the coldness of the empty room. Or the dead silence in between the walls… and the need to talk to--

Tim rubbed his eyes once more before bringing his hands to his keyboard. There’s a report he needs to type up for Wayne Enterprises. Yeah, he has ways of ignoring it.

He’s fine.

\---

“Train with me!”

Tim sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, “Damian, I have things I need to do--”

“You’ve said the same thing for the past three days!”

Tim felt his annoyance levels rising, “Well, do you think all of this paperwork is finishing itself? The Titan’s Tower still has taxes that need to be paid, you know.” Tim turned away from his younger brother and walked toward the desk chair he was so rudely yanked out of.

Right as Tim sat down in it once more, Damian swiveled it around, again, but at least he didn’t brutally rip Tim out of it like last time, “Tell me, Timothy, does the paperwork need to be turned in by tonight?”

Tim was still annoyed, but now there was some confusion to go with it, “Uh, well, no--”

Damian interjected, “Does it even need to be turned in by tomorrow?”

The confusion was slowly overtaking the annoyance, “Nooo, but--”

Damian threw his arms up in the air as if he were trying to argue with a brick wall, “Then why can’t you get off your lazy butt for a couple of hours! All you do is sit there and work on paperwork, get up to get a drink, sit back down to type something, get up to go to the bathroom, then, you just sit back down again! It’s worse when your not at the manor! God! It’s like your lifeline or something that’s equally as unreasonable! You won’t keel over and die if you spend two minutes away from it! I--”

As Damian paced and waved his arms around frantically to emphasize his point, Tim watched Damian with a keen eye. It was very much a Damian tactic what he was doing, but there was a hidden layer to it that Tim could detect. It was a once in a lifetime thing to be found on Damian, and Tim let the younger one rant for a little longer than necessary to double-check and make sure what he was seeing was what was actually happening.

Damian was _worried_ about _Tim._

Tim had continuously rejected his family’s invitations to movies or hanging out for a myriad of reasons. All of them, much to their dismay, eventually backed off after they realized they weren’t getting anywhere. Damian did at first, but from what it seems, he’s not taking the excuses anymore. While he’s trying to brush it off as ‘concerned for Tim’s fighting abilities, after all, even with training he’s still weak’, Tim could sense that it was more, ‘Hey, why aren’t you talking to us?’ Damian can’t figure out _why_ Tim was being so closed off, so he’s doing what he does best when he can’t solve a problem immediately.

Angrily shouting at the nearest warm body.

Which just so happened to be Tim himself.

Tim’s eyes somehow managed to soften. Flicking his eyes around the room, he let out a small sigh, “Okay, fine. I’ll train with you for a couple of hours.”

Damian had his mouth open like he was going to continue, but then he stopped when he heard Tim speak, “W-wait, really?”

Tim grinned at the sight of Damian being genuinely being confused for once, “If you’ll finally get out of my hair if I train with you, then fine, let’s train a little bit.”

Damian had wide eyes for just a second before getting rid of them. He made his famous ‘tt’ noise before turning around and walking to the matted area for training, “Finally, you learned some common sense. Hopefully, with some of my training, you’ll learn how stupid you were to begin with.”

Tim grabbed his bo staff that was leaning against the desk as he followed his younger brother, “Uh-huh, I’ll be sure to listen closely, then.”

During their training, Tim ended up winning more often than Damian did. Fortunately for them both, the brat didn’t mention it in his normal fashion of grandiose death threats, nor did he try pushing himself harder and harder every time they restarted. Nope, he kept it to annoyed and disgruntled grumbles under his breath and only occasional stomps of his feet when he got back into position.

When Tim went to sleep, he felt a little bit more satisfied than he thought he would. He wonders why. Could it be that human interaction is something he needs and craves and since he finally got it he’s not feeling as empty as he would’ve if he just stayed at his desk the whole night?

Nah, it just had to be the fact that he got to kick the crap out of the demon child.

That’s it...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> double update cuz im stoopid so theres that
> 
> please let me know if there are any glaring typos! criticism is okay as long as its respectful~
> 
> If you wish to scream at me here's my [main tumblr](https://halorocks1214.tumblr.com/)
> 
> And while youre at it heres my [whump blog](https://whumpitlikeitshot.tumblr.com/)


	9. Stab Wound

A fact that will unfortunately never go away: Riku hates sleeping.

A long-time ago, sleeping was one of Riku’s favorite things. He loved nothing more than to shower after a long day on the beach or helping his parents, then crawl into his warm and fluffy sheets and pass out for the rest of the night. It was heaven. Nowadays, it’s just pure hell. Anytime he closes his eyes, his subconscious loves to remind him of all his _failures._

He watched himself pull out his keyblade and corner Sora, leaving Kairi’s body in the corner. This time was different. Before, she had her eyes closed. When her heart was stolen, it, at the very least, looked _peaceful,_ allowing the part of Riku that wasn’t possessed to have some semblance of relief. Now, her eyes are wide open, but they’re still _dead._ They have a blank, cold stare to them that Riku wants nothing more than to shake her awake and get rid of that look.

But he can’t do that. He’s watching this in a spirit form _away_ from his body, meaning he can’t stop it like last time. He had to watch his new-evil self rip Kairi’s heart from her body, _again,_ and now he has to watch himself advance on his other friend, Sora, who’s trying so hard to not to tremble and cry in fear. Back then, when Riku first ran away, Sora wasn’t as phased by it. Oh, he was still hurt and scared, but he also still had undying _hope_ that he could get his friend back.

It was different the first time it happened, and Sora got what he wanted: he brought Riku back. This time is different. Sora expected Riku would never fall to Darkness again, Kairi expected it too, even _Riku_ never wanted to taste that power ever again, and yet… here they were. Sora was so taken aback that Riku could let himself be taken over again that some of his hope dwindled away: even after all they been through, Riku still chose Darkness in the end?

Riku supposes that’s the cruel irony of the situation: how does he know he’s _really_ changed?

Despite all of that; despite seeing Riku literally rip Kairi’s soul away from her _once again,_ Sora still had some hope. He _still_ metaphorically stood his ground. Metaphorical in the sense that he was on his butt crawling away from Riku in nothing but terror. Riku felt sick watching this, but he was hoping the more he watched the quicker he would wake up.

But as of right now, he had to hold back his vomit as Sora found it in himself to smile anyway, speaking with that unrelenting desire to save everyone that made Sora so great, “Riku! This isn’t you! C’mon, you broke out of this once, you can do it again!”

Riku tensed when he heard his nightmare(?) self laugh darkly, “Oh Sora… Don’t you see?”

Riku watched as he stepped closer and closer to Sora, who was crawling and crawling until his back ran into a wall, leaving him with nowhere to go. As he tried looking around to find an escape plan, he jumped when he heard Riku’s footsteps stop right next to him. He looked up, shaking to the point it looked like he had hypothermia, to see Riku’s dark stature, dark clothes, and dark _keyblade._

With every step, every breath, not-dream Riku got sicker and sicker, even more, terrified than before. He watched his dream-version (or is this just a part of him secretly waiting to burst out?) slowly raise the keyblade over his head, grin as dark as the rest of himself. He stated one last thing as if it were matter-of-fact, “You were always the one who thought I could change. That’s what makes this part so fun.”

Riku heard himself literally scream out, “NO!” as Sora tensed so his body could take the hit (oh, how funny one’s subconscious could be). Riku leaped forward and tried to stop his other self right as he brought the keyblade down. Unfortunately, when Riku tried grabbing him, he just flew threw his evil-self, only hugging himself when he stopped running. His breathing was near-hyperventilating, and he wanted to do anything else other than turn around.

He gulped and did that way anyway. What he saw stopped time itself. Sora’s mouth was as open as his literal _chest_ due to the keyblade sticking out of it right now. Meanwhile, other-Riku smiled so gleefully and happily, the Riku that tried stopping it fell to his knees. He felt his hands gripping his chest as if gripping it to the point of making it bleed would stop his labored breathing.

Looking at the floor in front of him, he jumped when he heard footsteps approach him. Looking up with tears in his eyes, he panicked even more when he saw what he could be right in front of him with that same, dark, _stupid_ grin. Then, it spoke, “You’re in denial, but you know what this is…”

Riku flinched as the other-Riku walked back and brutally ripped the weapon out of Sora’s chest, clearly enjoying the yelp of pain that the ex-friend could make somehow on the verge of death. Blood glistened at the end of the keyblade, and other-Riku admired it as if it were a new paint job. With a few dark laughs, he abruptly looked back at the shock-filled Riku, “This is the future, and you _know it._”

Riku’s eyes widened as he started screaming. He screamed at screamed and brought his hands up to his ears as if he could just forget what just happened, could deny _the truth._ He wasn’t even aware of his soon-to-be self walking towards him when he--

\--rapidly sat up with an arm outstretched in front of him trying to grab something, still hyperventilating.

Analyzing his surroundings, he saw a normal bedroom. _His_ bedroom. With his dumb, blue and yellow-starred sheets and his nerdy posters. He was _home_ and _not_ killing his friends and family. He _changed_ and now he _knows_ better, he _does,_ so why the hell does his mind have to tell him otherwise?!--

A small hand gently draped over his arm. Then, a feminine voice spoke, “Hey, Riku, what’s wrong? Another nightmare?”

Still breathing heavily, Riku looked into the eyes of Kairi, which were conveniently not _blank_ or _dead,_ which calmed his breathing somewhat. It picked back up when he made a drastic realization, however, “Sora!”

Turning around to his other side, he saw the back of his other childhood friend. Part of his mind feared the worst, so he took both hands and grabbed Sora by the shoulders and turned him over. Riku sighed when he saw no hole on the other boy’s chest, but he wasn’t completely satisfied. He carefully and gently shook Sora until the brown-haired boy blearily opened his eyes with a slurred, “Whhhhaaaaatt?”

Riku then realized he was acting like an idiot and let go of Sora as if he were hot coals, “S-Shoot, sorry, Sora, I--” He shut up when he felt Kairi drape over his back with the intent to do nothing else other than comfort her friend.

Riku watched Sora sit up and rub his eyes while Kairi spoke, “Our boyfriend here had another nightmare, and I’m going to assume he’s going to brush it off unless we talk about it right now.”

Sora froze for a moment to register his girlfriend’s words before simply going, “Ooooohhhh,” looking up at Riku with a cheeky grin, he quickly leaned over and took Riku into his arms, helping Kairi sandwich the tallest of the trio in a love pile, “I bet my dumb banana shoes that your nightmare was about you-know-what, and I’m just going to say it: you’re _you._ Nothing else matters other than what you do today, and today? You’re a great hero, an awesome keyblade wielder, a great friend and a loving boyfriend,” Sora squeezed to emphasize his point, “And what happened may have sucked, but considering it led to everything that I just stated, I suppose I can’t really be that mad anymore.”

The entire time, Kairi tightened her hold and nodded her head with a grin. Everything Sora said was spot-on, and she would much rather give Riku more time to process the word-dump than just repeat Sora’s words and feelings. She can do that next time it happens. They’ve learned to take turns, she and Sora.

Riku felt the tears leak, but none of them came down his face, “R-Right… Right. I’m different. I’ve _changed._ Thank you, Kairi, Sora… thanks.” He knew he wasn’t evil, and he knew his friends didn’t hold it against him, but when those night terrors came, his lovers will always be there to remind him, even if it leaves him speechless every time.

Kairi giggled as Sora went, “Of course, dude! Wouldn’t have it any other way!”

The trio eventually laid back down, keeping Riku in between Kairi and Sora’s arms. It was very warm and soft and _safe._ When the morning came around the nightmare wouldn’t be anything more than a fleeting memory, just like what caused them in the first place.

They’ve all changed, and they’ll need to keep changing until they die because that’s what humans do, but that’s what makes them so great. 

No matter what it brings, they wouldn’t have it any other way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i chopped my hair off today. that was fun lmao. its a cute, fluffy bob and i love it so much
> 
> please let me know of any glaring typos! criticism is allowed as long as youre nice about it~
> 
> If you wish to scream at me here's my [main tumblr](https://halorocks1214.tumblr.com/)
> 
> And while youre at it heres my [whump blog](https://whumpitlikeitshot.tumblr.com/)


	10. Shackled

Arthur. Fucking. _Hates._ Being tied up.

Even more so when it’s not really ropes and _actual_ fucking metal chains and shackles as if it were the fucking _1400s._

He usually has better language, but dammit he’s tired and maybe a little salty. Why is it always _him_ that gets put in situations like this? He’s the only normal, albeit prosthetic-using, _human_ of the group, so _why?!_ He’s going to keep pointing this out until he stops becoming the damsel in distress! At this point, he’ll be forced to wear a literal dress!

He moved a little bit and another rock was added, pulling his limbs apart just a little bit more, and the gasp Arthur made reminded him that he can be salty later. There was a shackle around each one of his wrists and ankles. Whoever kidnapped him was either watching from a distance or just trusted that the trap would finish him off while they made their escape. Arthur is not entirely sure _how_ the trap works on a mechanical level, but he gets the gist.

If he moves a certain way, the weight offsetting the torture device increases and pulls on him like that other old-fashioned torture device. He would remember the name if it were any other situation. Anyways, when weight is added it pulls more and boy does it _hurt._ The chains were already digging into his skin, and from what he can see it’s cut into his skin pretty badly. It’s not fatal bleeding by any means necessary, but it’s enough to create a sturdy stream of blood down his arm and the chain. If there’s a positive to his fake arm, at least it doesn’t have the ability to bleed anymore.

Oh yeah, the pulling: that shit hurts too. It’s constant, never-ending stress on his body and he _hates_ it. He doesn’t need another constant, never-ending stress outside of his anxiety to deal with ever. Then again, his life likes to bite him in the ass like that. Stewing in his annoyance, he accidentally moved in the designated way again and another undeterminable amount of weight was added, yanking his feeble body even more.

There was a popping noise that came from his shoulder and he yelped. Tears started leaking out of his eyes as he bit his lip. Nothing else in his body felt like it was breaking, thank God, so he kept completely still as his body adjusted to the new pressure. Meanwhile, his now-dislocated shoulder-- of course it was his _right_ one, of course! Can’t be in a shitty situation and not have _something_ happen to both sides of his body!-- burned with the fury of a thousand suns. Yeah, it was still being yanked on, so that sure as hell didn’t help. It was getting so bad that he closed his eyes at one point.

He couldn’t tell if it was only a few minutes later or hours, but eventually, a couple of crashes came from the other side of the room, follow by two familiar voices both shouting, “Arthur!”

Unbitting his lip (and tasting copper-- yeesh, did he bite it that hard?) and grinning, he could barely slightly open one of his eyes, and even then his vision was blurry as hell due to his tears. “H-Hey…” he croaked out, “P-Paint me l-like one of your fr-french g-girls.”

He hopes Lewis and Vi giggled in their heads as they broke him out of his chains. With four separate slashes-- a pair coming from each of them-- Arthur gasped in a mixture of sudden relaxation and pain. You don’t get strung up like a Halloween decoration for hours at a time and then _not_ rebound like a rubberband when suddenly cut down. That’s not how it works in the cartoons, so Arthur expects something similar in real life.

As he fell to his knees, his lovers ran to his sides and carefully examined him. Vivi looked at his slack right arm and touched it to lift it up. Arthur couldn’t stop the hiss that came out of his mouth, causing Vivi to at least remember to gently set it down with a quiet but heartfelt, “Sorry.” She moved to examine his shoulder with the same gentleness that reminds Arthur of a mother.

Meanwhile, Lewis looked over his bleeding and nearly-ripped apart wrist. It was chafed to hell and back, and if there wasn’t a nice cover of blood over it, Lewis was sure he would be able to see the full extent of the damage that was caused to Arthur’s wrist. While Lewis is positive Arthur’s ankles feel the same way, the ghost thinks it’s safe to assume that they’re not bleeding due to the fortunate fact that Arthur was wearing his typical jeans.

It might have been pure, dumb luck, but good on Vivi for convincing him to wear these instead of those dumb jorts. _They look good on me!_ No, they don’t, Arthur.

Another crash brought everyone out of their circle of comfort. They looked up to see Mystery growl at a lady currently crawling away on all fours. Her attempts at running away were fruitless when Mystery pushed his paw down on her back more gently than he originally wanted. With an “oof”, the antagonist was on her stomach and unable to go anywhere.

Satisfied at the scene, Mystery looked over to his human companions with a cheeky grin, “If any of you would like to play interrogation master, I’m all ears.”

The three humans all looked around at one another with raised eyebrows before Vivi stood up and wiped off her pants with a grin similar to Mystery’s. She gracefully walked over to the lady pinned underneath her kitsune companion and leaned over to get as close as possible to her face, “You’re lucky my boyfriends are such gentlemen. Even ladies like you they couldn’t possibly raise their hands at!”

The lady in question genuinely _sighed_ before realizing that Vivi didn’t mention herself. The lady’s eyes widened as she looked back up at Vivi, who kept grinning as she stood up to her full height, “I also know that ladies do not hit other ladies, but too bad! I _ain’t_ one!”

At this point, Mystery was fully sitting on the lady’s back, even yawing from boredom, “Don’t go too far, V, we need something _alive_ to turn into the authorities.”

“Oh, I won’t--”

“And we need it identifiable as a human.”

“... You’re no fun.”

In the background, Lewis tended to Arthur. He bandaged his wrist, massaged his aching muscles and even wiped the tears from Arthur’s face that spilled out when Lewis reset his boyfriend’s shoulder. Now, they were both sitting up and leaning on each other as they watched the scene before themselves.

Arthur thinned his lips, “Hey, Lew-Lew?”

The ghost raised his flame-eyebrow at his boyfriend, “Yes?”

Arthur sighed, “I wish I had your mom’s popcorn right about now. For more than one reason.”

It took a moment for Lewis to register Arthur's words before he snorted, “Yeah, man, so do I. That would be the perfect cherry-on-top for this.” 

A few more seconds would go by before Lewis brought his arm around’s Arthur’s shoulders. Arthur took the queue to lean even more into his giant, pink boyfriend. The watched their blue-girlfriend have the time of her life snuggled together as if they were watching a cheesy, romantic movie. Mystery never lost his grin throughout the entire thing, by the way

They were quite the team, the four of them.

The next half-hour or so was a lot of fun to watch and experience. Even more so when the four of them watched from the bushes as police became confused as all hell when there was a body dropped in front of the station tied up with broke chains. Don’t worry, the lady lived. She won’t even have anything physically permanent! But throughout her entire time in jail, she knew never to do any experiments like that again. Even if protectors like Arthur's lovers and wolf-y friend were not common, she didn’t want to have even a 0.000001% chance of running into people like _them_ at _all._

Arthur felt a weird sense of satisfaction as he fell asleep for the next few weeks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i make it sound like vivi was a real sadist here. she really _didn't_ do anything other than spook the lady. it might have been some really _terryfying_ spooking, but it was just spooking nonetheless
> 
> do let me know of any glaring typos! if you wish to give criticism, please give it respectfully~
> 
> If you wish to scream at me here's my [main tumblr](https://halorocks1214.tumblr.com/)
> 
> And while youre at it heres my [whump blog](https://whumpitlikeitshot.tumblr.com/)


	11. Unconscious

Kotetsu woke up with his head feeling like it was recently run through a soda can compressor.

It _wanted_ to hurt, badly, but the pain meds muffled all of it so well that it left the hero in a state of utter blankness. Well, that last part could be because of the fact that he just woke up after being knocked out like a mother fucker. The baddie could swing hard, and Kotetsu could only blame his stupidity for how he was right now.

He charged in like a dumbass. Sure, he was protecting a <s>child</s> civilian, but he could’ve done it in a way that got him out unscathed _like_ the person he saved. Not only is he out of commission for the next couple of days, _again,_ but he’s also incredibly hurt in the process…

_Again._

Kotetsu pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed, slightly aggravating his abused chest.

Looking around the room, he found his phone sitting on the table next to the bed. He was simply going to pick it up and scroll through whatever he may have missed while out cold, but he thumbed over a _sticky note_ on it of all things. With slightly wide eyes, he read what it had to say.

**Two new videos. First one is just me. Do that one first. - Barnaby <3**

Kotetsu snorted due to his dirty mind as he complied anyway, ‘Really, Bunny? ‘Do’? Maybe rephrase your notes in the future.’

He got to a video, and with only a moment’s hesitation, eventually hit play.

It began, and Kotetsu was taken back when the first thing he saw was simply just Barnaby _sitting._ Literally, he was at their kitchen table staring at the camera/phone that was probably propped up on their napkin holder. Wait, that means he touched Kotetsu’s phone while the older man was asleep! Oooh, that--

_“Before you get mad at me for taking your phone, can you at least listen to what I have to say and show?_

Kotetsu froze. Damn Bunny and his mind-reading capabilities. Regardless, Kotetsu released some of his annoyances to listen to what recorded Barnaby had to say. In response, Barnaby relaxed his shoulders a bit. Because he knew Kotetsu would get peeved but then calm down.

Bastard.

_“Knowing you, you’re probably thinking of how badly you fucked up, or how stupid you were, or God forbid a mixture of both. It’s probably both, isn’t it?”_

Wha-- Hey! He--

_“Normally, I would be there when you woke up to beat some sense into you, but duty calls and that call said I needed to be involved with the cleanup this time. I see why you hate this part so much now.”_

Kotetsu grinned. Damn right that part sucked, despite it being necessary.

_“However, I figured this would be a good time to do another thing I’ve been meaning to try.”_

Kotetsu blinked. Barnaby was an enigma, and Kotetsu was lucky to understand his 100 mph brain at least a _fourth_ of the week.

_“You don’t realize how much we care for you because you sacrifice yourself and are _out_ for most of our concern. I can’t believe you’ve managed to imitate that part of action movies you despise so much so well.”_

Kotetsu puffed his cheeks. Well, _that_ was a little uncalled for.

_“So, like, yeah, you’re assuming the worst about yourself when none of it’s true and I know it’s probably not possible to fully end your self-deprecating thoughts, but… just watch, please? For me? You’ll see some things you weren’t even aware of that were happening, and it’s because of _you_ and how much we care for you.”_

With that, the video ended and froze on Kotetsu’s boyfriend’s smiling face.

Kotetsu raised an eyebrow. Well, his boyfriend’s recording is, unfortunately, right about the first thing it stated, so that left Kotetsu at an impasse for the second. Eeeeh, screw it. It’s not like he’s got anywhere to be. With his <s>slightly shaky</s> thumb, he went to where this supposed “moment of truth” was located. Kotetsu found one, 5-minute video that he didn’t recognize. There, that must be it.

With a deep breath, he hit play.

_The scene was an alleyway._

_Actually, scratch that. It was the alleyway Kotetsu got his ass handed to him however long ago. _

_Wait a minute… is that the kid that Kotetsu saved?!_

_It sure was, and right after the kid ran on-screen from one side to try and find their missing toy ball, the villain came on from the other, breathing heavily after running away from all the heroes chasing him down._

_So this was a camera recording? Oh, security cams. Right._

_The villain gasped in fear. Off-screen was none other than Kotetsu. He knew this because he very easily remembered what led to that child needing to be protected. The villain panicked and charged, unaware of the small being occupying the space. When Kotetsu saw that there was about to be collateral damage, he made the decision that is was better him than anyone else._

_With a blink, Kotetsu was on the ground curled around the random kid with his back to the villain, who brought down the blunt weapon he’d been using all day. It struck Wild Tiger as if it were a mix between a baseball bat and a golf club. Getting the wind knocked out of him with a grunt, Kotetsu was sent rolling to one side of the alleyway, his already injured back slamming against the wall._

_With a groan, Wild Tiger was out like a light._

_Then, in came the barrage of heroes who immediately caught wind of what went down. The sight was so shocking that they didn’t notice the child in Wild Tiger’s arms squirm away to hide behind the dumpster. They were too busy focusing on their _not moving_ friend. In response to the scene, most of them gasped. Others found one or two words in themselves to say before calamity rained down._

_“Honey!”_

_“Tiger, no!”_

_“Holy shit!”_

_“Alright, that’s it!”_

_With a flurry of emotions, everyone split off to do their own things. Fire Emblem, Rock Bison, and Dragon Kid all pounced on the villain, who managed to shriek in an octave that didn’t even exist at the sight of three furious heroes (and more importantly, friends). Blue Ice, Sky High, and Origami Cyclone ran to the side of an unconscious Tiger, making sure he was, at the very least, stable. As long as he stayed alive until the paramedics came, all should be good._

_The noises coming from the beatdown were _not_ pretty whatsoever. It was slightly off-camera too, so all one could see was a flurry of limbs. Three pairs swinging and striking and one desperately trying to shield itself (and most likely failing)._

_A little bit after all of that, when the crazy wasn’t too bad, Barnaby finally rolled up, panting and on high alert. He watched Kotetsu get rolled out of the alleyway on a stretcher (which shouldn’t be that shocking at this point) with Karina, Keith, and Ivan walking right next to him. He slightly calmed down when he looked further into the alleyway to see Nathan, Antonio, and Huang standing over a practically-dead bad guy. Good, the dude should be grateful: Barnaby could’ve done a lot worse than them._

_Rubbing the forehead of his helmet, Barnaby nearly jumped at the sound of outright ugly crying coming from a few feet away._

_In the midst of their panic and focusing on other tasks, they never even thought about the little reason Kotetsu ran in and got slammed in the first place. With all the chaos of the aftermath, no one could pay attention to the sobbing kid. As paramedics tended to Kotetsu in the street, officers took away the criminal, and the other heroes were interviewed by the press, that left Barnaby to watch the crying child try and make sure their savior was okay._

_“Pwease! Help him!” the child cried, “He’s huwt weally badwy! I don’t want him to be huwt weally badwy...”_

_Barnaby’s posture softened at the child immediately. He took a deep breath and kneeled down to the child’s level and gently placed his hand on their shoulder, “Don’t worry, Tiger is a strong hero. He’ll come out of this just fine and even stronger than before.”_

_The child sniffled, “... Pwomise?”_

_Barnaby smirked, “I promise.”_

_The video ended with Barnaby tenderly picking up the child and carrying them against his chest. He, with the child in his arms, slowly walked out of the alleyway along with the officers and other officials at the scene. What was left was an empty alleyway with trashed garbage cans and a few spots of blood, no doubt from the bad guy that Kotetsu’s friends just beat the fuck up moments ago._

Someone other than Kotetsu cleared their throat from inside the room. The video was over, so Kotetsu didn’t mind looking up from the phone

In the doorway was Barnaby. His hair was crazy from a mixture of stress, exhaustion, and annoyance, but the grin spoke miles about how truly relaxed he felt at seeing his _awake_ boyfriend. Letting Kotetsu stew in his own flabbergasted-ness, Barnaby slowly walked over to sit on the edge of the bed next to the tannish man.

Rubbing his thumb over the screen for a few seconds, Kotetsu eventually let out a couple of chuckles (and tears). Looking up at his boyfriend, he mustered up as much cheekiness and sarcasm as his sore body could, “You are one sly son of a rabbit, you know that, bunny?”

Barnaby rolled his eyes and leaned ever so closer to Kotetsu, “I believe that’s something you find to be charming, do you not?”

Throwing the phone to the part of his bed where his feet lay, Kotetsu rolled his shoulder before bringing his arms out in front of him, “I think I find a couple more… “enticing” things about it too, you know.”

Barnaby laid his arms around Kotetsu’s shoulders, “Yup, I sure do.”

The two brought themselves together in a smooch, soon falling over due to the pressure. Barnaby was on top of Kotetsu, and the older man squeezed the younger one’s body in response, never wanting to let the moment go. Throughout it all, the kissing never stopped.

That is, until the doorbell rang, breaking them both out of their stupor. They awkwardly looked at each other in the eyes before splitting apart, Barnaby the first to sit up completely. Kotetsu simply laid on his side with his front facing the door. The quietness was quite awkward, and the only thing that broke it, in the end, was the doorbell ringing again.

Barnaby cleared his throat before standing up, “I forgot to mention the others were coming over. They brought food. I’ll let you get properly dressed while I invite them in.”

Kotetsu rubbed the back of his neck, “Yeah, uh, sounds good.”

With a nod, Barnaby walked towards the exit. As he got to it, he stopped and tenderly laid a hand against the frame, taking a moment to look back at his flustered boyfriend, “But, uh… how about later?”

After a moment of silence, Kotetsu smirked.

“Later.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> today was my mom's birthday so i got her a box of chocolates. that was a lot of fun~
> 
> please let me know of any glaring typos <3 criticism is a-okay as long as it comes from a place of respect~
> 
> If you wish to scream at me here's my [main tumblr](https://halorocks1214.tumblr.com/)
> 
> And while youre at it heres my [whump blog](https://whumpitlikeitshot.tumblr.com/)


	12. Stitches

“Red Robin.”

Hoo boy, we’re doing this tonight, “Yes, Batman?”

Stepping out from the shadows was the nightmare that flocks the night himself, armed and ready with a handful of choice words to the younger vigilante, “Just because your suit is red doesn’t mean I can’t see the parts of you that are bleeding. Especially when it’s major.”

Tim scoffed, “Yes, I got injured. You don’t get to stand there and tell me it’s the worst thing ever, though. You’ve had worse, Hell, _I’ve_ had worse, so don’t get your black panties in a twi--”

“No, it’s not the worst _injury_ I’ve seen,” Batman took a step forward, “But it’s pretty damn close to the worst stitch job I’ve ever laid my eyes upon, and that’s being generous.”

Tim bristled at the comment, “Hey, I’ll have you know _Oracle_ complimented my medical skills! I--”

Batman took one more step forward, and his posture immediately fell. No longer was he the merciless crime-fighter, he was _Bruce,_ concerned father of a bunch of children as broken or even more so than him, “I’m not saying your stitch jobs are incompetent or lacking, Hell, I’ve heard even _Jason_ say positive things about you when you patch him up, but when it comes to you fixing yourself, it always feels like you don’t try _as much._”

Tim shut right the hell up as Bruce continued to point out the obvious, “I watched the footage of when you were stabbed in the side three and a half weeks ago. For some reason, it’s still bleeding _this heavily_ even today. I’ve also watched your recent fights. I’ve pinpointed every moment those stitches of yours break and reopen. I’ve watched every flinch and hiss you’ve made when they’ve no doubtedly split apart, and a horrible part of me wants to say you’re keeping it that way _on purpose._ Why? To punish yourself? Does it make you feel good? Why resort to this when you have the Titans right there?”

Bruce cut off his rant with a flick of his head to look away from Tim. If he didn’t, he might have felt compelled to add, ‘And you have us, _me,_’ but he damn well knows why Tim doesn’t go to him anymore.

Tim was left at a loss at what he was seeing. _Bruce_ couldn’t find his words. It didn’t help that the man talked in the most lost and forlorn voice Tim has heard in a while. Jesus, the older detective might as well have gotten down on his knees. Hell, him getting down on his knees would be fitting for what he did next.

“Please,” Bruce _begged,_ literally, “At least let me give it stronger stitches. Let me fix this one thing of yours.”

Taking a few shaky deep breaths, Tim looked around before conceding, “Yeah, okay… okay…”

With a small smirk, Batman felt a sense of relaxation he hadn’t felt in a while. The next few minutes consisted of them finding a more secluded area, sitting down, Tim removing some of his costume for Bruce to see, and then Bruce patching up the wound.

Bruce actually used painkillers, mainly because he’s pretty sure Tim doesn’t. He does when he’s in his little perch, safe and sound, but when Tim does his romps around town that involved being away from home days at a time, Bruce considers it a safe assumption that Tim doesn’t see painkillers as necessary <s>for himself</s>. While that might be true, Tim should realize that he deserves _some_ kind of relief from his pain, even if it’s minor in the long run.

The worst thing about the whole shebang was simply the awkward silence. Tim refused to meet Bruce’s eyes, and Bruce was just too focused on making sure he did a proper job. Jesus, Tim, these stitches should’ve fallen out when you slept in your bed. _Have_ you slept in your bed since you got them? Have you slept at _all_ recently?

“There,” Bruce said calmly. He brought his hands away from Tim’s side so he could put away his needle in one of his pouches, “They stay tight even if you were to twist yourself into a pretzel for 48-hours,” Tim whistled in amazement. That’s actually pretty decent, “Plus, they’ll dissolve over time. You don’t even have to worry about taking them out.”

Fixing his armor so all of his skin was covered again, Tim just stood up and nodded his head, “Alright, sounds pretty good.” He couldn’t really say anything else that would sound natural, so he left it at that. Thank God Bruce didn’t point it out. He simply nodded and led the two of them out of the room back to the outside world.

The night ended with the two of them back on a roof looking for their exit plans. After finding his route, Bruce looked back over to his son and saw Tim struggle to say something. Before he could ask what’s up, Tim very bluntly stated, “Thanks.”

Bruce raised his eyebrows, “Oh? For what?”

Tim was practically squirming underneath the pressure. With a sigh, Tim elaborated, “I was getting annoyed at having to fix them every other night, so thanks for the stronger caliber. In fact, I might need to get some of these stitches from you in the future, these aren’t half bad.”

Bruce read the true message loud and clear.

_I’m glad you helped me despite my issues._

Bruce let the words sink in for a moment before full-on _grinning_ as if he said a corny joke, “Of course, Red Robin, I just want to make sure you know I’m still able to take care of the small things in life. I may not understand your grandiose adventures anymore, but I’ll always have a grasp on the little ones.”

Turning around, Bruce grappled away before Tim had the chance to respond. As he flew through the night, Bruce hoped Tim heard _his_ true message. 

_I’m always here for you, Tim, no matter what._

From what the security cams caught after he left, Bruce is pretty sure Tim at least heard him, even if the younger detective won’t listen to it in the end. Tim’s flabbergasted posture before he grappled back to his place of living spoke miles of how he was really feeling about it.

Oh, Tim’s issues are definitely not going to be fixed anytime soon, but at least Bruce made progress.

Both he and Tim could always appreciate progress.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is RUSHED as HELL and im very sorry about that. i didn't really have any motivation for this chap so if it feels week thats probably why! if you still manage to like it, thank you very much!
> 
> please let me know of any glaring typos! im okay with criticism as long as it is given kindly~
> 
> If you wish to scream at me here's my [main tumblr](https://halorocks1214.tumblr.com/)
> 
> And while youre at it heres my [whump blog](https://whumpitlikeitshot.tumblr.com/)


	13. "Don't move."

Once Sora made it behind the tree, he allowed himself to trip and fall.

After tumbling for just a second, he sat back up and pushed his back against the large plant. The pain from his leg was so great that he wasn’t even _trying_ to hold back any tears. If one were to look at his limb, chances are, they couldn’t guess that it was his _leg_ on the first try. It was salvageable, thank the Lord, but Sora wouldn’t blame anyone if they didn’t think it was. It was bloody and mangled, and the lines of red dripped in a way that one could compare it to a spider’s web. It burned like the sun itself, and Sora was genuinely shocked that he could break free from that heartless’ grasp, and even more so that he could run away with that much damage.

Right now, he was just taking deep breaths, trying to calm his erratic chest. His back was as stiff as a board against the tree, and-- _oh God, don’t tell him that’s the heartless coming back for more--_

Before he could even blink or scream, something plopped down next to him cradled him in their arms, roughly brought their hand around his mouth and whispered, “Don’t move.”

Widening his eyes, Sora realized the heartless wasn’t the only one that advanced on Sora. Riku, who was helping him fight, was there as well. Riku watched in horror as the heartless picked up his friend and tossed him around like a chew toy. He helped keep the thing distracted so Sora could get away. As Sora disappeared in the trees, Riku could only think to himself, ‘God, how is he even _running--_’

Now he was here, bloodied and bruised but nowhere near as bad as Sora’s leg. The heartless was still after them, but hopefully, what Riku did would be enough to deter it off of them. Just as long as they stayed quiet and still. That can be… difficult, for a number of reasons.

Before any more words could be said, they both jumped when they heard the heartless land on the other side of their cover. Peering at it for a second, Sora saw Riku’s plan and his heart sped up a little bit faster.

Riku slashed out its eyes.

To their knowledge, heartless don’t _really_ have the ability to smell, so all that was left was its touch and hearing. As long as it didn’t hear anything suspicious, it had no reason to touch anything either. Silently gulping behind Riku’s hand, Sora closed his eyes tightly.

It felt like a thousand years. Sora could hear and feel both his own and his friend’s heartbeat trying to beat themselves out of their rib cages. The terror was deafening, and Sora _hates_ unnecessary silence and/or silence for the point of survival. It sucked to be quiet, but the heartless crept closer and closer to their tree, and Riku and Sora felt themselves squish more and more--

“Hey, big loser!”

_Kairi._

They heard the big beast sporadically turn away from the tree it was examining at the sound of another living thing. Not even missing a beat, it charged at Kairi, and Riku and Sora couldn’t help the flinch that left their bodies. They really didn’t know if it was for Kairi or the heartless. It probably should’ve been for the heartless.

Within seconds, the heartless started screeching and howling in pain. Vague noises of it dissipating out of this world were heard along with gentle footsteps in their direction. They knew it was Kairi, but that didn’t stop their bodies from subconsciously squishing together again. They were honestly terrified of that thing, and even though they _know_ it’s dead, their bodies still feel like they need to run and not look back.

The footsteps stopped momentarily, followed by a quiet but concerned voice, “Boys?! Where are you?!”

“We’re over here!” called out Riku, who subconsciously curled around Sora a little more than necessary. Now his body has caught up to the fact that there was no more danger, it was now panicking due to the fact that _Sora was still injured._

Kairi popped into view moments later. At first, she looked panicked, but then calmed down at the sight of her friends. She especially softened at the sight of Sora’s tear-streaked face, “Oh, thank goodness…” She knelt and put her keyblade in front of her to hover over Sora’s leg. Soon after, the weapon was glowing, and Sora nearly moaned at how nice the healing magic felt.

It always felt nice. Always.

After a couple of minutes of Riku tenderly holding Sora while Kairi healed him with her gentle touch, she eventually sat back with a sigh, “There, good as new.”

And it was. Outside of the shredded pants, you couldn’t even assume that Sora was recently in a fight. He chuckled like a child on anesthesia, “Ahh, you guys are the best.”

Riku and Kairi both simply grinned at that. With a combined effort, everyone stood up. Eventually, Sora laid upon Riku’s back in a piggyback ride. Feeling giddy, Sora leaned into the smooch that Kairi gave his cheek. The smooch was a couple of seconds longer than necessary, but neither person minded.

“Hey,” Riku chided teasingly,” Leave some for me when we get back.”

Kairi placed her hands at her hips, “That’s exactly why I need to get all of mine in right now! You’re just going to hog him back at home!”’

Riku shrugged, “Maybe stop losing the coin flip when we decide who gets to be the big spoon.”

Kairi waved her hands around with playfulness, “I know it’s rigged, Riku! I know you’re using a weighted coin!”

Riku just shrugged before looking back in front of him, “Well, then it’s not my fault you don’t have any evidence.”

Throughout all of their quarreling, Sora just gripped his boyfriend and cheekily grinned. Maybe he fell asleep on the way back, maybe he didn’t. He did know that he loved them, and he never wanted them to change.

He’d never willingly trade this for anything in the world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i gave kairi healing powers because a) fuck it and b) its what everybody imagines anyways
> 
> please let me know of any really bad spelling/grammar issues! criticism is acceptable as long as ur nice about it~
> 
> If you wish to scream at me here's my [main tumblr](https://halorocks1214.tumblr.com/)
> 
> And while youre at it heres my [whump blog](https://whumpitlikeitshot.tumblr.com/)


	14. Adrenaline

The human body, when faced with danger, has two responses when it gets pumped up with adrenaline: fight or flight. It’s one of those things kids are taught young so they can better understand themselves. It’s essentially asking yourself this: in the videos of people being jumpscared, are you the person that runs as soon as the jumpscare pops out, or are you the one that swings before thinking and, unfortunately, knocks the other person in the mask out cold?

Arthur has found he’s the former more often than not, much to his chagrin.

He was hauling ass down a hallway being chased by-- what was it? A demon-ghost rabbit of some sort? Well, whatever it was, he didn’t take the time to look. He turned around at the sight of a floating, semi-rotting mass in the room and started hightailing it out of there. From what he could hear, the thing saw him and decided to join him in the jog for his life.

Stellar.

Looking up from the holes in the floor, he didn’t have any time to yell at Vivi to start running with him before he accidentally barreled into her, taking her down with him. They both groaned. At the noise of undead-moaning, they sat up. They couldn’t stand, as their legs were entangled with one another, so when the rabbit jumped over them in an attempt to attack, all they could do was bring their arms up in defense.

As they closed their eyes, the last thing they saw was a blur of pink jumping in between themselves and the ghost. It sounded like a pretty big scuffle, and they also realized that something big happened when the hissing noises stayed at one singular location in front of them even though _they_ weren’t doing anything to stop it from advancing.

Reopening their eyes, Vivi and Lewis saw the not-so-dead rabbit try to bite and scratch them but fail due to the net in between them and it. Wait, _net?_ Gasping, they looked behind the angry spirit to see their friend Lewis gripping the other end of the trap for dear life. He was glaring at the ghost, intent on making sure it stayed captured. Arthur and Vivi watched in amazement as the spirit literally _shrunk,_ getting smaller and smaller, allowing Lewis to use less and less strength overtime to keep it contained.

Eventually, Lewis was able to bring the opening of the net to only one of his hands, gripping it valiantly in his fist. Lewis had captured it and stood as a proud hunter would when they made a kill. He moved his now free hand to his hip as he watched the ghost struggle to free itself. Lewis just rolled his eyes at the feeble attempts. As long as the net stayed closed, this tiny little thing couldn’t hurt them.

With a gasp, Vivi freed herself from the leg knot and jumped up to wrap her arms around Lewis, who returned the hug with his free one, “Oh, Lew-Lew! Great job!”

When Vivi released him so she could wrap the rope she was carrying around the opening of the net, Lewis grinned, “It’s no problem, sweetie!”

Still laying on the ground watching the two love birds, Arthur looked away sheepishly, waiting for them to finish. Watching Arthur’s tomfoolery was Mystery, who was previously with Lewis helping him find the net. He huffed a breath of annoyance and cleared his throat, speaking louder than necessary, “Do you need any assistance, Arthur?”

Blinking about twice, Arthur found himself suddenly standing and walking to the exit, “Nope! I’m good!”

The next couple of minutes involved everyone walking back to the van. The entire time consisted of small talk, and any self-hate Arthur had was very subtle and well hidden. Mystery silently sighed. He can consult the mechanic about this later. After all, he was happy to be able to talk to Vivi and Lewis, who genuinely included him in the conversation. They really did enjoy his presence in their group.

Too bad the man thinks it’s fake and is too smart so he hides it fairly well from the happy couple, who would be absolutely horrified if they knew what Arthur was feeling.

Mystery gets many headaches from this if you can’t tell.

Now they were in the van. Vivi and Mystery were passed out in the back, leaving Lewis to drive and Arthur to ride shotgun. Shoving the keys in the ignition, Lewis looked at his longtime friend, “Hey, is everything alright? You seem, er, more tired than usual.”

Arthur blinked when his body made him aware of the fact that someone was talking to him, “I, uh, well… I fucked up. Again. I even nearly took Vivi out with me. She’s your _girlfriend,_ shouldn’t you be a little madder?”

“Oh,” Lewis realized. He quickly took a tone of voice that he hoped would be seen as comforting, “Don’t worry about that, shit happens. Need I remind you of when I got caught in the pitfall full of feathers?” Lewis figured he made some kind of point at Arthur’s snort, “We all made it out alive in the end. That’s what’s important, alright?”

Arthur took a deep breath to mask his true feelings, “Right, you’re right. Thanks for the reminder, dude.”

At Arthur’s grin, Lewis grinned back and started driving into the night. Looking away from his friend, Arthur was glad he masked his true feelings. He’s only mad at himself if he’s going to be honest. He’s nothing but a coward that needs to be constantly saved by Lewis and Vivi and even _Mystery_ has stepped in a few times.

With a sigh, Arthur went to sleep feeling no better than the floorboards he just ran on.

\---

Hooves angrily clip-clopped from around the corner about a dozen or so feet away.

Shoving his back up against the wall, Arthur held back the impending panic attack that was about to rain down over him. This malformed, transparent, green horse thing with chains around certain parts of its body certainly wasn’t the worst thing they’ve dealt with, but that didn’t make it any less creepy or _deadly._

They had all been split up, because of course, they were. Vivi, Lewis, and Mystery were able to find each other, not terribly quickly, but fast enough to start looking around together. Right as Arthur pulled himself out of his hole (yeesh, the spikes in this place are reminding him of… the other familiar cave), he finally found his friends. As he was going to run to them, he saw Mystery come back into his field of vision trying to _bite the throat_ the apparition.

Without even thinking, Arthur stopped running towards them and ran behind the wall he was currently at and hid, waiting for his friends to finish the fight like always…

Smacking the sides of his face, Arthur slid down the wall in shame. He’s doing it _again._ Running away from the action like a coward. He wants to go to God and strangle the man for making his body always pick the flight option. His friends were in _literal danger_ and his body couldn’t be half-assed enough to get up and help even a little bit. Even when he heard their grunts after the horse flung Mystery into them, he could only shakily stand and peer around the wall to see what happened.

They were all precariously next to the edge, and below them were a bunch of spikes (yay! How metaphorical for them) just waiting for a body to fall on them. They glowed with a sort of greenish-cyan color, only slightly brighter than the horse ghost’s green was. Arthur’s three friends “stood” their ground valiantly (they were in a corner on their asses, they couldn’t stand up even if they wanted to), glaring down the spirit walking closer and closer to them. They were all panting heavily, and Arthur could see every drop of blood that adorned Vivi and Mystery. Lewis’ flame-hair almost looked like it was dying out due to pure exhaustion.

This is when the light switched turned for Arthur. Seeing his friends in that state already set something off, the angry ghost still advancing on them certainly helped the emotions in the long run.

Ending his near-hyperventilation with one large gulp, he started shakily walking towards the commotion. Then, the walking turned into running. Then, it was sprinting. He felt this spurt of raw energy fill veins. It was a mixture of fear and anger, and Arthur knows all too well where this was going to go.

The human body has two responses to adrenaline: fight or flight. 

This time, Arthur finally did what he wanted to do for so long.

He _fought._

With a yell, his companions all looked up in shock to see Arthur full force leap at the apparition. Before they could shout his name as well, the ghost was being tackled away from them and off the ledge. Wait, that also means _Arthur--_

Arthur kept his arms around the neck of the creature longer than necessary, but he wanted to make sure that it was going to _stay_ down there. If it meant the unfortunate for him, then… well, at least it looked cool. Jokes on you Lewis, you won’t be the only one who can walk through walls! Your siblings will be so amazed.

Closing his eyes and letting go of the dangerous spirit, Arthur thought, ‘Man, did Lewis really feel this little pain when he got impaled by all those spikes back then?’

Then he realized, ‘Wait, I’m _not_ impaled at all!’

Opening his eyes, he felt something grabbing himself around his midsection and gripping it for all its worth. Because of this, he was in a sort of dangling position with his arms and legs slack in front of him. Below them was the screaming horse-ghost, impaled on many spikes and slowly but surely dying. If the sight wasn’t enough to convince you, the dying noises it was making sure was.

Wait, why _was_ Arthur floating? Looking behind himself, he saw a rather panicked and freaked-out Lewis in full ghost form. Shit, he shouldn't be flying! He’s injured! Thinking up a storm of concerned talking-tos in his head, Arthur let himself be flown back up to where Vivi and Mystery were. As Arthur was set down on his knees, Lewis plopped down next to him on his own ghost-legs and waited.

There, the perfect moment to let Lewis have it, “Hey! You’re inju--”

With a grunt, Arthur felt something pounce his chest. Looking down, he saw a bunch of blue slightly shaking in his arms. It was Vivi, and she was crying, because of Arthur. Oh… oh, okay.

Bringing his arms around his girlfriend, he clicked his tongue awkwardly, “Hey, Vee… it’s okay, I’m alright--”

“Well, not really,” Mystery interjected, “Because out of all of us, you’re _definitely_ aware of the consequences that could’ve befallen you if Lewis didn’t muster up enough strength to save you.”

Lewis took the time to lean closer to Arthur to get his attention, “So, why Arthur? Why jump?”

Oh shit, that’s why she’s crying. Oh fuck, of course-- “Oh jeez, it's not because of that, you would know if it was-- well, maybe it was a little bit,” shit, their flinches, pull it back, Arthur, pull it back! “Ah! I mean, it’s not like _that that,_ I promise.”

Vivi leaned away and wiped her tears, looking up at Arthur with the most soul-crushing look that would put begging puppies to shame, “Then why?”

Mystery and Lewis had similar looks, and considering Arthur was so fucking tired, he was willing to tell the truth, “... I was tired of only ever using my flight abilities.”

All of them tilted their eyebrow in confusion, but Lewis was the only one to speak, “Uh, can you explain?”

Arthur flicked his vision around before thinning his lips, “I’m just... “ Arthur leaned his head back with a large groan before letting it all go, “I’d always run away before all of this!” he gestured to Lewis, not maliciously, but to prove his point, “And get one of you in trouble and have to have the one who wasn’t save our asses! I just!... I wanted to be able to end the journey and _not_ be an additional problem along with that ending for once…”

Arthur awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck, “Hearing what you guys just thought I just did, I guess I didn’t really do a good job of that...”

All of them stared at Arthur speechless. Meanwhile, he was looking away, blushing in embarrassment. Arthur thought he might have blown it, but then practically jumped when he felt two bodies wrap themselves around him with the ferocity of a tigress protecting its cubs. Now Arthur was blushing for a different reason, but somehow, he didn’t actually mind this blushing.

Mystery chuckled at the sight, “Well, apparently, someone isn’t aware of how strong they are. Again.”

Vivi snorted, leaning away and wiping her eyes once again, but this time, she was smiling while doing it, “Good thing we’ve got such a long drive to talk it into him again!”

Lewis stood up and wiped off his pants, “No kidding. C’mon, dude, hopefully, you’re awake enough to listen. Otherwise, we’ll make sure you are.”

Still on the ground looking up at his friends, Arthur felt a fury of emotions rage throughout his chest. Letting out a singular laugh and a few tears, he got up himself and followed his friends out of the cave to the van.

“Nah, I think I’m going to be awake for the next couple of days. You guys are good…”

Looking down at their feet with a grin, Arthur felt on top of it all.

“Really good.”

The other three looked around at themselves before the humans let out tears of their own. Standing around Arthur, Lewis, and Vivi brought one of their arms around their yellow boyfriend. Vivi decided to be the one to say the last thing about this for a while, “Well, I think we all agree the same thing can be said about you, can’t we?”

As they walked out of the cave, Mystery kept a close eye on them from behind. They laughed and cried and prepared themselves for the conversation that was about to come. Even with that on the horizon, even with all of their issues that will exist until the end of time, they still loved as if the world was going to end tomorrow. 

Mystery smirked. May these humans never change.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> more msa more msa cuz theres a whole lotta potential with these characters and i love it!!!
> 
> please let me know of any glaring typos! im okay with criticism as long as u give it respectfully~
> 
> If you wish to scream at me here's my [main tumblr](https://halorocks1214.tumblr.com/)
> 
> And while youre at it heres my [whump blog](https://whumpitlikeitshot.tumblr.com/)


	15. Tear-stained

“Hey, sweetheart?! Can you come in here for a minute?!”

Deku looked up from his notebook at the sound of his mom’s voice. She was awkwardly standing in the hallway entrance, a hastily wrapped package in her hands. Raising one of his eyebrows, Midoriya stood up and walked to her. She also mustered up the courage to walk out and meet him halfway. Throughout it all, she only met his face a couple of times instead of just staring at him as he did to her.

It was a little concerning, but considering the item in her hands, he brushed it off as her typical behavior. _Their_ typical behavior. He’s acted this way when trying to surprise people he cared about too. “Alrighty, what seems to be the issue?” he asked outright.

Mama Midoriya licked the roof of her mouth and gulped. “Here! Open this,” Inko said abruptly, practically shoving the package into his chest. Looking at her face one last time, Izuku brought his vision down to the present and carefully grabbed it. After examining the plain, white paper and feeling the apparently soft and flexible object inside of it, he looked back up to his mom.

Inko nervously looked everywhere but her son, rubbing her sweaty hands together in the hopes that it would magically dry them off. It’s always weird when Izuku thinks about it, about how much he has in common with his mom. Their nervousness; their fears; their looks; their ability to cry like a firefighter’s hose; it’s things like this that make Izuku wonder what in the world could he have gotten from his dad. He’s like, 90% his mom’s child more than anything else.

Complying with her wishes, he started carefully unwrapping the thing. Bit by bit, piece by piece, the paper disappeared and Izuku slowly learned what the contents were. When all of the paper was finally gone, Midoriya widened his eyes. He held in his hands a really old blanket of his, All Might themed of course. He hadn’t seen or used this specific one in years. He got rid of it when new patterns came out in the stores, plus…

He always wrapped himself in this blanket back whenever he came home from a particularly crappy day. If he failed a test, his bullies decided to be a little bit more ruthless than usual, or if the fact that he was quirkless just hit a little bit harder than he liked, he would come home, set all of his stuff down, found this blanket and didn’t think about anything else for the rest of the day.

It always broke Inko’s heart seeing him in that state. Even more so when she realized he tried keeping it a secret from her. She wasn’t sure how healthy of a coping habit it was, but she knew it was probably safer than others. She always wished she could do more, however. All she could do was sit next to him and rub his back until he felt better. Sometimes they even popped in movies to watch and ignore the pain of the world for a little bit.

Speaking of Inko, she took a sudden deep breath, causing Izuku to subconsciously grip what was in his hands just a little bit tighter. Nothing noticeable, but the blanket folded a little bit more than before. She spoke again, this time, her voice more confident and 100% ready to comfort her son, “I know you got rid of this because it’s old and worn down and you probably like other designs a whole lot better nowadays, but…” she looked forlornly at the piece of fabric in her son’s hands, “I also think you didn’t like the memories associated with it… All those tear stains reminding you of the darker days in your life.”

Midoriya’s eyes widened, but she kept speaking despite her son’s reaction, “So, I researched! I found ways online on how to remove tear stains and the like, plus, I patched up some frayed ends and rips in the fabric. I couldn’t really touch up the dull colors, but I don’t know if you could really notice the difference.”

Rubbing his fingers over the fabric to keep his grip on reality, Midoriya could only squeak, “Why this all of a sudden?”

Inko tensed up nervously again before sighing, “I don’t honestly know… I just felt like bringing this back. I know a lot of your upbringing was terrible, but I felt like you needed a reminder that it wasn’t _all_ bad. I remember how much you laughed and laughed at those movies we put in, you know?...” Inko looked at the blanket with a sad smile, “I just wanted to let you know that despite it all, you still became you, and you’re a pretty great person.”

Everything was still and silent for a moment, both humans registering what just happened.

Without a second thought, Izuku leaped forward into his mom’s arms and wrapped his around her neck. He was smiling like an idiot, tears slowly dripping down his cheeks in pure, unrestrained joy. After getting through the shock, Inko grinned herself and wrapped her arms around his waist. While she didn’t cry (even though she felt like it), she felt the exact same emotions her son was feeling.

He’s become such a strong, young man, and she couldn’t be prouder.

“Ooh! I know!” Midoriya suddenly leaned out of her grasp, grin as wide as a child who was told they were getting ice cream for dessert, “I only have to make a few more notes for homework, but after that, how’s about we sit in the living room and watch a dumb movie! Like the old times! I’ll even make our favorite popcorn!”

Inko waited until he was done. When he was, she smiled like nothing was wrong with the world, “That sounds wonderful, sweetie! I’ll get the room set up while you finish!”

An hour later, they sat in front of the TV watching a documentary about Pros that Midoriya insists was highly inaccurate. Honestly, Inko should probably make him watch something happier, not something that makes him annoyed, but after some of his ranting, he always ended it with how much he loved the Pros and how much he wanted to be like them. If a little bit of anger reminded Izuku of how amazing he’ll be one day than Inko was fine with it being let out over random documentaries.

They both eventually fell asleep on the couch. Izuku laid his head on her shoulder and she laid her head on top of his own mop of hair. While she simply had one of the living room blankets, Izuku wore his old All Might one throughout the entire night. He even had it on during the movie.

He was going places, and she would always be glad he proved her wrong about what he could possibly do in life. Yep, her son had come a long way from the little boy on the playground, and it’s all thanks to his relentless determination in the face of hopelessness.

What she didn’t know, was how he thought she was just as important in his path of becoming a hero. Without her there, who knows what he would’ve done or thought of. It wasn’t pretty, he can tell you that much. But now they were here, pure walls of support for one another that they wouldn’t trade for the world.

Tonight, they simply slept peacefully.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> mama inko is pure and wonderful. thats all i have to say
> 
> please let me know of any typos that interrupt your reading! criticism is fine as long as ur nice about it <3
> 
> If you wish to scream at me here's my [main tumblr](https://halorocks1214.tumblr.com/)
> 
> And while youre at it heres my [whump blog](https://whumpitlikeitshot.tumblr.com/)


	16. Scars

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im adding this part at the beginning of the chap cuz im just going to say i read this prompt and ran with it. ive been meaning to write this scene for some time, considering how many times ive imagined it could possibly go down. im pretty satisfied with the final product, if im going to be honest
> 
> **warning for graphic depictions of self-harm and previous suicide attempt**

Nights like this haven’t happened in a long time, and that’s part of the reason why she’s probably handling it so poorly.

It’s the same stuff Ellen told herself all the time throughout the wee-old days of high school and then continued to silently parrot it throughout the rest of her life. Nowadays, they are nowhere near as bad nor as violent as before, even on the bad days. 

But she guesses after what really has been a shit ton of time, it had to come at some point. She just wishes that it didn’t have to happen while she was alone and stressed out due to festival preparations. Then again, she never gets what she wants, even if it’s relatively easy.

_’Mainly cuz I don’t deserve it, probably…’_

Shaking off the dark thought as a wet dog would water, she rubbed her eyes. She forgot to mention she’s been in bed the whole time, tossing and turning, trying to block them out as much as possible. Considering she wasn’t going to sleep anytime soon, she rubbed her eyes, stood up, and mindlessly walked down the stairs to get a cup of water. All the while her mind screamed at her over everything.

_‘Heh, look at me, unable to sleep by myself like the child I am.’_

Getting over to the cabinet with the cups, she grabbed one, keenly aware of her shaking arms and gripping the glass tighter to make up for it. She went to the sink and filled it up, turned around and sat on the counter, bringing the drink to her mouth. She actually managed to get a few sips, which she didn’t expect.

_’Good lord, I can save the world countless times but can’t drink water properly?’_

With her hands only slightly shakier, she tried placing the glass on the counter next to her. Keyword tried, as she misplaced it only by an inch. That inch was enough to put most of its weight over the counter edge, and the laws of gravity can only be changed in either space, VR, or anti-gravity chambers/devices.

With a loud crash, the glass shattered and the water went everywhere.

_’Look at that mess! If your mother and father were here, what would they think of their ‘strong’ and ‘powerful’ daughter who can’t even hold up a glass?’_

Breathing slightly quicker, she leaped off the counter onto her knees in front of the mess and held her hands over it. She wiggled her fingers a little bit, trying to figure out where to start. Wait, when _were_ her parents getting home? They said they probably would when she was asleep in her bed, so times weren’t specified. That uncertainty spiked her panic (_‘What if they come home and see this mess?’_), and thus caused her to pick up shards blindly.

Anyone with brain cells can tell you where this is going.

With a hiss of pain, Ellen yanked her hand back like it was caught on fire. Squeezing it close to her body for a moment, she eventually looked at it with tear-filled eyes. Her thumb, pointer and middle finger all had semi-deep slashes, all of which were located on the highest line of a human finger on the other side of their respective knuckles.

_’Dammit, now you’re going to get blood on the floor as well! Pathetic.’_

Now she was getting pissed. Shut up, shut up! She hasn’t gone through so many years of crying and proper therapy to regress in one night! In response, she subconsciously pushed her injured fingers together. Rubbing the wounds against one another to make the feeling larger, she slowly brought herself to a mental space she hasn’t been to in a long time.

Her powers came with blessings and curses. With how many fights she’s been in-- how many times she’s been tortured-- she absolutely has scars, both mental and physical. Stab wounds, gun wounds, burns, electric scars, hell, she sometimes wonders about her lungs due to the combination of her need to save everyone from a burning building and the fact that she’s weak to smoke-inhalation.

Somehow at some point, she’s managed to make her body literally hide them. They don’t exist when they should. It’s as if she never got injured (oh, how she wishes so). So when it came to her arms and her… “unsavory” actions towards them with sharp objects, she was caught off guard when she took off her hoodie one day and found them gone.

_‘Typical. People like you will do anything to forget your grievances instead of owning up to them.’_

A weight was lifted off her shoulders… that is, until a little bit later. September 18th, the day she decided she had enough and went off into the forest with that familiar knife. Vertical instead of horizontal… Two years after her attempt, she woke up on that same day with marks on her arms that could only be described as a blind man trying to create a pound symbol with pen and paper. Just, the paper was her arm and the pen tended to be any sharp object she could easily clean.

Turns out, the scars still exist, they just only show up on the day they happened. Certain torturous situations that were worse than other typical ones? They would show up on the day she was captured. Big, scarring fights? Self-explanatory. Her arms?...

Every mark she ever made makes its appearance on Sept 18th; the day she buckled down and proved to herself that she really was a coward. Today wasn’t that day, thank God, but it was fast approaching.

_‘Never forgot your failures, Ellen.’_

She was saved, thankfully, by a bunch of strangers (who were now her trusted team of Guardians, how ironic) who knew about her powers and ‘destiny’. Through a combination of telling her about her own worth and a little bit of guilt-tripping over what would happen if she really did leave, she gained enough faux-self-confidence to get back home.

She would parrot that same guilt-trip along with her self-hatred to never mark her arms again. Bruises, ocassionally, but never broken skin. Somehow, even with no therapy, she managed to never do it again. It was a miracle for all intents purposes. The fact she was able to keep all of it a secret outside of two people in her circle of friends even more so.

_‘If there was anything you were good at, it had to be lying, you selfish bitch.’_

She’s 14 again. An anxious, depressed, 14-year-old who’s been isolated by a number of things. She’s got the world riding on her shoulders with her dumb wings and powers, and she’s told she can be her own person in the same breath that tells her mastering her powers sooner than later is the best thing for everyone.

Never by her mothers, though, bless their souls. They didn’t deserve to deal with a cursed child such as herself. They only worry about her, making sure her training is never taken too far, and always stepping in when the school’s mistreatment goes too far. They already deal with enough baggage, so she has to get the rest of it out this way. A way they won’t see her dirtiness.

Throughout that entire self-deprecating monologue, she picked up the biggest piece of glass on the floor and ever so slowly brought it to a place on her arm about two inches above her wrist. With a speed about 10x faster than how quickly she brought it to her skin, she slashed a single line on her right arm in a way that was foreign yet all too familiar at the same time.

The blood dripped in an average pace to the floor, creating a small puddle directly underneath her limb.

Her lips curled upward. Only she would understand how much this was needed.

Then, the door pushed quietly open with two voices speaking even quieter. In the blink of an eye, her grin fell off her face, her eyes widened in panic, and the piece of glass fell back to the floor. Looking back down at the mess, she was powerless to stop the panic attack that overtook her body.

Fuck. Fuck fuck _fuck!_ It’s been literally _centuries_ since she’s even _thought_ about doing it, and all it took was one night alone and some hurtful thoughts that are honestly not the worst she’s told herself to crumble under the pressure.

_‘You’ve always been weak like this, to be fair.’_

Fuck off already!

Not caring about the pain, she panicked like a five-year-old and tried picking up the glass with her bare hands. It didn’t really eviscerate her fingers like it normally would, but damn did the blood make it harder to pick the pieces up. Tears dripped down her cheeks like molten lava on the side of a volcano.

“--it wouldn’t be so difficult if Finnegan just-- _oh my god._”

That hurt more than any cut glass she would have to pick up.

Looking up, she looked directly into the eyes of her mother and father. They split the shocked expression amongst themselves. Egon’s eyes were wide: he’s come home to his daughter in worse conditions, but that still doesn’t make any of the smaller scenarios better. Tamara’s hand was over her mouth. A crying daughter with broken glass and blood? It didn’t take much to figure out what happened while Ellen was home alone.

With the right amount of panic, the two parents strode forward with purpose.

She dropped the glass and scooted back in a mixture of worry about what they were doing but also concern about where they were going to sit. The last thing Ellen wanted them to do was cut up their clothes with bloody glass, so the practical part of her subconscious made her move enough so they could avoid it. All they saw was Ellen regressing back into unhealthy mindsets, so they picked up their pace ever so slightly. They eventually kneeled down in front of her, Egon gently taking her hands and Tamara being the voice of reason.

She leaned forward, speaking with a voice that could be described as her “motherly warrior” tone, “You can feel your father, right? Hear his breathing?”

Ellen was shaking like a leaf, but her parents' sturdy comfort gave her enough to nod through it.

Tamara nodded as well, “Good, and since you’re responding to my voice, I know you know I’m here too. We won’t leave or do anything until you feel better, okay? So just focus on him, and let us know what you need if you can.”

If felt like forever, but eventually, Ellen was able to breathe air at a decent pace. She was still a little shaky, and her breathing wouldn’t fully going back to normal for a while, but she definitely could think straight. Looking up from his chest, Ellen saw her father with a look that could best be described as pure relief.

Watching the scene, Tamara shook her head as any mother would after taking their child to the emergency room with a broken arm. She still had her hyperdrive mode on, but the danger seemed to mostly be gone, “I know it’s easy to just say, ‘you know you could’ve told us’, but if there’s anything I’ve learned, it’s not actually so. But now we know, and tomorrow, one of us will come to help you with your side of the preparations, okay?”

Ellen looked at her mother’s smile and grinned herself. Man, she was feeling better already.

It quickly fell off her face when she felt her father’s hands move away from just hers. She hissed, almost feeling like a rabid animal guarding its territory. No, anything but that. Please don’t investigate further than her hands, _please--_

But Egon only stopped for a moment, “Hey, sorry sweetheart, I’ll be gentler.” Of course, he would only think he aggravated her cuts. Before Ellen could object in any other way, her right arm was turned over, and what her parents saw made them gasp ever so quietly.

A slightly diagonal cut was a couple of inches above her wrist. It wasn’t bleeding fatally, but the way the blood gushed wasn’t a simple cut either. With their years of being King and Queen under their belt, the knights and armies that have come and gone, they knew of a variety of wounds/injuries. They always valued positive mental health in their warriors, and any sign of less than that, let alone self-harm, sent them to special healers until it was genuinely worked through and helped, and even after that, it was even more time of them with their families off duty to take a break from it all.

And here was their _daughter,_ the one they thought was killed when she was a simple baby but were blessed when they and their subjects found that it be untrue, with a wound that, no matter what she said, they knew how it came to be.

Tamara was doing her best to hide it, but her breathing picked up in fear. As stated, their daughter doing something like that was only seen in her nightmares. She and her husband were always so thankful that in their way-too-long absence that she apparently never did anything like it…

Out of all the things to be wrong about, _again,_ why this?

Egon finally found his words, mainly because he felt he needed to talk, if not for his daughter, for himself, “E-Ellen… even if you simply “fell on the glass”, there’s no way something like that could be created from it. Did you...?” He couldn’t even bring himself to finish the question.

Ellen knows that their reactions are nothing but concern for her wellbeing, but the genuine idea of _they know_ is making her breathing speed back up. She tried calming herself down the best way she knew how: chastising herself for being so damn weak.

‘Ellen oh my god _shut up_ they just got you to calm down don’t _ruin_ it any more than you already have--’ yet no matter what she told herself, no matter how much she tried hating herself, she kept struggling for air and trying to find the _right_ excuse that would make her parents feel better, “I-It’s fine! I s-swear! Bes-sides, it’s practically been hundreds of years s-since I’ve done anything remot-tely close t-to this so--”

And Ellen might as well have told them she didn’t love them anymore. Hell, if she said that the looks on their faces might have not been so terrible. They could assume other things at least, but that? That was purely her unadulterated panic, and it made them feel like she physically punched them in the gut. Their faces certainly gave that impression.

What was worse? The confession itself, the idea of what _other_ things she’s been through, or the fact that she’s panicking because she’s worried they’ll be _disappointed?_ Like if she doesn’t make it seem like anything more than just a simple paper cut they’ll leave her because she’s “too much work”? It doesn’t help that they know to jump to that conclusion immediately in the first place.

Really anything they do would be unexpected to her anxiety-filled mind, but she still lost more of her breath when her father roughly yet gently pulled her tiny body into his arms, cradling her head with his hand. If his wife wasn’t next to them, he probably would have cocooned her into his wings in that way that always manages to make her let go.

But Tamara was there, and she was carefully placing her hand on Ellen’s back in motherly comfort, “I don’t think I can even begin to explain that it’s not okay, sweetheart.”

Ellen was still shaking and crying, but at least she wasn’t hyperventilating. She softly gripped her father’s clothes, “Aren’t these clothes the ones you want to wear at the festival? I’m ruining them…”

Sensing that she was going to try and break away, Egon gripped her tighter with a small laugh, “Don’t worry, I can clean them before then. Don’t derail this, please, at least for our sake.”

Because if there’s anything Ellen can do, it was make herself uncomfortable for the sake of others. They hate how much she does it, and it makes them feel a little dirty when they use it to get her to explain something, but at least they know learn _what_ it is so they don’t have to make her uncomfortable anymore, directly or indirectly.

They would group hug for a moment (Tamara draping herself on her daughter’s back, sandwiching her in an embrace of protectiveness) before splitting off. Egon would take Ellen to the couch while Tamara cleaned up the broken glass. He explained to his wife what she needed medical wise to treat their daughter. With the broom away and med-kit out of the bathroom, Tamara sat on the couch and cleaned her wounds.

Once it was put away, she came back and silently sat on the other side of her daughter to her husband. It was deadly silent, but they still waited. They knew this wasn’t easy, so they would at least make it the least hard for their daughter to tell them anything and everything.

Then, Ellen finally broke.

She explained the general details to them while crying. Nothing too specific (she wasn’t in the headspace for it more than anything), but enough to give them a good picture. She told them how she hurt herself, how it was a mixture of forgetting everything yet feeling everything at the same time. She would tell them how and why she stopped, at least with the sharp objects. The only thing she could prevent herself from spilling was how she tried completely finishing it.

That would come another day.

Her parents would’ve listened with tears as well, but they figured they could be strong for an hour or so. With how much her powers were brought up with different emotions, they couldn’t help but feel the most conflicted they’ve ever been surrounding how much pressure their daughter was put through. Her powers both gave her so much grief yet it was the only thing keeping her alive long enough to find people to help her. Hell, that “long enough” was a pretty long damn time too.

They’ve become the third and fourth people to know about her dark secret, but hopefully, many more would come from this.

It would finish with Ellen finally falling asleep in her mother’s arms and her parents springing into quiet action. Well, only her father would get up from his spot on the couch because ‘tired and riled up daughter sleeping peacefully.’ A bunch of questions would be asked as well: What do they need to do tonight? What can they do to relieve her stress? How can they get past her walls as they’ve done before? And many others along with them with their so strong yet fragile daughter in their grasps.

When they would learn about her attempt? Well...

A couple of days later on September 18th, the day she ‘tried’ would come along for its yearly appearance and make those scars appear in all of their ugly glory at 12 AM on the dot. She would be wearing a sleeveless dress at the festival, so obviously anyone with at least one working eye would see them. Merek quite literally had only one, panicked in a way that gave her a wrong impression, aaaand cue her running away because, as previously stated, she thinks she’s a disappointment and yadda yadda yadda.

Then a typical adventure would occur and she’d somehow manage to find a life-or-death situation she’d need to solve with help from her family after they found where the hell she was. Following that, she’d come back home and everyone would cry, especially her, they’d figure out how to handle it going forward (“Just because the trauma occurred hundreds of years ago doesn’t mean it doesn’t matter now, Ellen.”), and they would just add it to the list of “Things No Adult Should Have To Deal With, Let Alone Ellen At The Age Of ‘Teenager’” and so forth. 

But for right now? Her mother and father would watch over her like a hawk for the time being. They would quietly talk about what to do, who to go to first to bring this up with (because chances are, she’s probably told about 3 people at most), and do everything they could to comfort her. Because they know her. She’s thinking of the most awful things about herself and probably ways to distance herself from them since they’ve now seen a part of her that’s ‘tainted’ or whatever (the thought makes them grimace easily).

But with her sleeping dreamlessly on her mother’s lap and her father upstairs finding comfort items for when she wakes up, it was at the very least peaceful.

And the voices in Ellen’s head would eventually and finally shut up. They’ll never leave completely, unfortunately, and the days they’re the loudest suck ass, but at least she knows she doesn’t have to tell them to shut up by herself anymore. Even if she needs reminders, she knows her family is always there.

That’s the loudest ‘shut up’ if she’s ever seen one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> please let me know of any glaring typos! criticism is welcome as long as your respectful~
> 
> If you wish to scream at me here's my [main tumblr](https://halorocks1214.tumblr.com/)
> 
> And while youre at it heres my [whump blog](https://whumpitlikeitshot.tumblr.com/)


	17. Pinned Down

Being alone and surrounded by an Orobas and two Sandmans was _not_ how Joker wanted to spend this trip in Mementos, but he guesses that he should’ve expected this due to how well his day was going.

That’s like, the number one indicator that his day will turn to shit. If he’s ever happy, life has to remind him that, ‘Wait, that’s illegal. You can’t do that.’ Jumping over the Orabas’ Agi attack, Joker couldn’t help but feel like Futaba would laugh at that reference. Even when in mortal danger, Joker could only think about his friends.

They were going to beat his ass when they saw him again, that’s probably why.

He knows that being on foot outside of battles was a bad idea, but that Girimehkala was getting ridiculously dangerous. It just _refused_ to die, and Joker could tell his teammates were getting winded from how long they’ve been there. Hell, before the fight with the giant elephant, everyone except Noir had fainted once, and Skull and Queen had even fainted three times each! Making an executive decision as the leader, Joker caught the attention of the persona and had it chase him away from everyone else.

He ignored their panicked protests as he disappeared and ran to the floor that was just above them by one. Once he got deep into the new floor, he turned around and faced the monster. Quickly pulling out his Physical-Repellent persona, he managed to slowly but surely take it down. Once it was dead, he noticed his SP levels.

It was depleted as fuck. Hauling his ass back to his team, he ran into the personas currently trying to take him down. Even though he was tired, he managed to dodge and get away pretty well. He almost made it to the station platform when one of the Sandmans finally landed a Dorima on him.

Tripping and tumbling a few feet, his face eventually ended in the dirt on the fake-but-kinda-real train tracks. After how much they’ve all fought, ailments aren’t _too_ bad anymore-- brainwash doesn’t deal as much damage, they can still attack when under the influence of fear but it’s still weaker than if they weren’t, etc.-- that didn’t mean it still didn’t cause some panic when they had to work around their previous plan. The one that involved them _not_ becoming things like hungry or, you know, _asleep._

Akira was in this world between unconsciousness and consciousness. His fingers tried lightly gripping the dirt in an attempt to crawl away, but his body still screamed at him that _hey, wouldn’t sleep be just great right now?_ He was lowkey aware of the noise of the Orobas walking towards him, followed by the Sandmans’ malicious laughter. They had plans for this masked being, and they were going to love every bit of it.

Even though they were already closed, his eyelids tightened in preparation for the pain that was about to hit…

But nothing happened?

Before he could feel any kind of heat or pressure ending his life, the personas in front of him _shrieked._ The three of them hightailed it out of there for some reason. Before passing out, Akira watched a motorcycle zoom by, followed by a pair of spiked boots. Wait, Queen and Skull?! What--

Right as he passed out, he heard Panther yell, “Found him!”

While he was relieved he wasn’t going to die, the sense of ‘oh fuck’ filled him as well. He sacrificed himself for his friends, and as much as they loved him, they didn’t let that stuff slide too easily.

Fox picked him up in a bridal carry and set him down in the backseat of Mona, and despite being out cold, he still knew what kind of world of loving and concerned but still pain he was going to be in from his friends.

In the words of Sojiro, _Hoo boy._

\---

Sitting up rapidly, he examined his surroundings with a keen eye.

It was no longer the red-tinted walls of Mementos, instead, the cool-colored walls of Sojiro’s place. Huh, that’s weird. He’s stayed over at Sojiro’s placed before, so he knows he’s at least _mostly_ welcome to stay there, but after a Mementos run? _What?_

“Ah, I was wondering when you were going to wake your little leader brain up.”

Nearly shitting his pants, Akira jumped at the voice of his caretaker in the corner of the room. Looking in that direction, he saw Sojiro sitting in an (uncomfortable) chair reading the daily newspaper. His face was rather apathetic, but Akira felt there was more to this setup than what was implied.

Nervously smiling, Akira tried pulling out his bravado with a gulp, “Oh, Sojiro! I, uh…” Thinning his lips, it finally hit Akira that this wasn’t something he could charm his way out of, “It isn’t what it looks li--”

“I’m not going to chew you out, you know,” Sojiro interjected. The man folded his newspaper, stood up, set the newspaper down where he was sitting, and sauntered over to the boy who, slowly over the year, became a man in his eyes, “Well, I am, but it’s not because I personally wanted to.”

Before Akira could say, ‘What the fuck?’ Sojiro was in his bubble of space and gripping his ear like an angry mother. Akira gasped in shock more than anything. In fact, he was more annoyed at the revelation. Sojiro was playfully tugging on his ear lobe, and that brought certain playful quips out of Akira that would be considered PG-13 at least.

With a Sojiro-like sigh, the man spoke, “Your friends had to go out and get some things, so they asked me to do this in their place if you woke up before they got back. They simply told me to say, ‘You’re a major butthead who doesn’t realize what he’s worth, and this is only a fraction for what he’s in for.’”

Eyes getting misty, Akira looked away from his parental-figure with an emotion he couldn’t describe. He knows his self-esteem is lacking, _everyone_ does. He’s had quite the shitty life growing up, and that’s bound to lead to dark places. They’re all just thankful they met at the right place and right time. Who knows where _any_ of them would be if they never found one another.

Akira jumped again, but this time, it was a tiny jump. Mainly because Sojiro sat down next to him on the bed, so Akira didn’t want to potentially hurt him. The man leaned back into the headboard with a grin, “I have no idea what you did in that weird world of yours, but I do know I agree with the sentiment. You’re a good kid, _great_ even, and while I don’t say this often, I’m proud of you. Thanks for sticking around, kid.”

Even more emotions swirled like a storm in his chest. Unable to process _anything,_ Akira simply leaned into Sojiro’s shoulder. The man tensed for a moment before relaxing. A moment of vulnerability from Akira was rare, and he’d be damned to fuck it up.

The boy spoke quietly after a few moments of silence, “You know Futaba has cameras set up around the house, right? It would be a shame if she saw this moment.”

Sojiro clicked his teeth together in a way that spoke, ‘Haha, very funny, kid,’ “Show your friends this moment and you’re not only cleaning LeBlanc’s bathroom for the next month, you’re also clearing out your cat’s litterbox as well.”

Akira just rolled his eyes, “Alright, I’ll concede this one time, old man.”

The rest of the thieves found out about the moment anyway because of course, they did. It was not the fault of Akira’s, though. Did Sojirio really think that Futaba wouldn’t check the cameras herself out of boredom? She entertains herself with Mona’s dumb antics for hours on end with the recordings her security system catches. At the end of the day, Akira didn’t break his promise. He wasn’t the one who showed his friends the blackmail.

Sojiro could only tilt his eyebrow at the cheeky grins his daughter and her friends gave him for the next couple of weeks. Could they have seen what happened...?

Nah, they were just going to fill his cafe with silly-string again… probably.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> proofreading this i realized that i had gravely misread the title. please feel free to call me an idiot but i only just saw that the real prompt was 'pinned down' and _not_ 'cornered' soooo i hope this still works :)
> 
> let me know of any glaring typos that you spot! criticism is okay as long as youre respectful about it~
> 
> If you wish to scream at me here's my [main tumblr](https://halorocks1214.tumblr.com/)
> 
> And while youre at it heres my [whump blog](https://whumpitlikeitshot.tumblr.com/)


	18. "Stay with me."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> look at me go posting warnings for my OC at the beginning of the chap again!!!! lmao
> 
> **while this isnt explicitly stated ay any point in time while reading, the first half of this story takes place while my OC is about 13-14. just thought id warn people out there who arent comfortable with that stuff!**

Ow ow ow-- shit! This was a horrible idea!

“Where is that street rat?!”

“I know she came around here!”

“Find her before she gets away with our stuff!”

But necessary for survival. Story of her life right now. 

Ellen kept her hand over her mouth out of a mixture between muffling her panicked gasping and preventing herself from throwing up. She may or may not have just scaled about 3-4 stories with a sprained ankle _really_ quickly. It feels like a medium-level fire is burning through her limb, and the tears streaking down her face certainly helped show off how she’s feeling. She’s sitting on a fire escape stiff as a board, listening to the idiot thugs she barely escaped from above.

God, she needs to stop thinking about this if she doesn’t want to blow her cover. Let’s see, what to think about...

If she was going to distract herself with anything, she should wonder about how the hell her buddies are going to spin _this_ story. Her climb up two stories with only a minorly sprained wrist a couple of months ago had now turned into a practically broken hand that climbed up five. Really, she appreciates the sentiment, but she’s not _that_ cool or badass. Not like them…

“Here, fire one off! Maybe she’ll run like a coward out from where she’s hiding!”

“Ooh, good idea!”

A gunshot was heard. Ellen flinched quite a bit, but it was completely silent. With their groans of disappointment fleeing the alley, Ellen let out one big sigh and leaned back against the wall. Everything still hurt, and her leg was going to be difficult to hide from her moms, but at least she was _alive_ to be able to hide it. First, she needed to finish her delivery.

With great difficulty, she eventually found her way over to the spot she was told to drop it off. In it was the package of money she was promised for the job. Kneeling and hiding the delivery as requested, she quickly but efficiently counted the money left for her. It was 850 dollars just like they agreed.

She could barely hold back the whoop that wanted to leave her body. Thank God, this was going to make this entire shitfest all worth it. Shoving the money in the pouch she used to carry the delivery, she found enough adrenaline in herself to painstakingly make the trek back home. After a couple of hours of roof jumping, she finally made it back to her place, walked in and immediately went to the bathroom.

She took a raging hot shower that made her skin red as she likes it, covered her bruises and marks with make-up like she knows best, and then took way more painkillers than necessary, then practically crawled into her bed to see if there was any kind of update for one of her fave fics… Ooh! This one finally did! Oh man, she’s been so stoked--

“Ellen?”

She nearly dropped her phone like a bar of soap would after being squeezed too hard. Putting it to sleep and looking up, she saw her mom in her doorway and momentarily panicked. Shit! They weren’t supposed to home until _tomorrow._ Thank fuck she mustered up enough juice to get home. They would’ve freaked if they saw her gone, “H-Hey, mom! You’re home early!”

Amy sauntered into the room and sat on the bed next to her adopted-daughter, “Well, this was just as much of a surprise to us as well! We finished the surgery early, so they told us we could either leave or stay another night. They would’ve paid for the hotel stay, but we decided we wanted to have a little bit more time at home!”

Ellen smiled, hiding her nervousness quite well, in her opinion, “Oh? That’s amazing! I hope that horse didn’t give you too much trouble in the end.”

Amy waved her hand and let out a ‘pssh’, “I may have nearly gotten kicked like twice, but not even these large animals can withstand our anesthesia!”

Ellen giggled snorted, then barely held back a groan. Shit, hopefully, her mom didn’t--

“Hey, sweetheart? Why are you in bed so early? You always talk about how much of a night owl you are. You’re not getting sick, are you?”

Fuck, she did. Thankfully, Ellen held back her flinch when her mom brushed her hand on her forehead to check for a fever. Ellen carefully leaned back out of the touch in a way that wouldn’t alert her mom, “Oh, that? Please, I’m just tired. Plus, I need to give some time to catch up on my reading. What better place to do that then my lovely, soft bed?” She finished her statement off with a cheeky grin.

Amy furred her brow, “Are you sure? Because it’s no trouble if--”

“Mom!” Ellen interjected forcefully. She cleared her throat before bringing out one of her famous fake-smiles that always work no matter what, “I’m okay, I swear it on my laptop. As I said, I’m just a little bit tired. I practiced some water dancing earlier, and that always makes my body sore for a couple of days, you know?”

For a moment, Amy looked like she didn’t believe it, but soon let out a sigh when she realized this wasn’t going anywhere, “Alright, then, if you say so.” Amy stood up and brushed off her skirt before leaning back down and giving her daughter a smooch on her cheek, “Let me know if you _do_ get sick, though. You never know when you are until it happens.”

Ellen nodded away the blush that came over her face, “Of course! I’d hate to have a repeat of last fall! All I can remember was that cleaning up that mess was _killer_ on my back!”

As she walked away, Amy heartfully laughed at her daughter’s joke. It _was_ quite the big deal. She had no idea how her wife managed to keep her from driving them all straight to the hospital. Amy supposes her wife just has a keen eye for that kind of stuff.

While her mom couldn’t see it, Ellen forlornly watched as she left the room. Yeah, Ellen’s plan was to get her to leave the room without knowing what happened, but deep down, all Ellen truly wants is to just be held in her mom’s arms. She would cry more tears, but she’s already used up her tear supply for the night due to the pain that’s now gone because thank God for painkillers as she’s stated.

‘Stay with me…’ Ellen pulled the covers around her just a little tighter, thoughts turning darker and darker by the second, ‘Just for a little bit, please?’

But despite her wishes, she knew that she couldn’t. She already maxed out her comfort and touch quota for the day with that kiss and a brush of her mom’s hand. Any more and they would dive right into dangerous territory. The last thing Ellen wants is for either of her moms to die because of her, especially after everything they’ve already given up because of her involvement. 

_For_ her, she should say. That’s kind of worse in her eyes.

She went to sleep shivering, the only chills she felt coming from deep within her.

\---

Whooee, it’s been a couple of months since she’s had a hole in her side this big, but the feeling is one she’ll always remember. It fucking burned for the first couple of minutes, but then quickly became numb, followed by the rest of her body slowly following in its footsteps. 

A manmade earthquake struck and collapsed a building, trapping numerous civilians inside the rubble. Her brother requested the help of The Guardians on a live TV broadcast and lo and behold, they showed up 10 minutes later. Cliff, Tommas, and Devon were all on stabilizing duty while Nikki, Harris, and herself helped out some of her brother’s team in rescuing trapped people. The rest of their teams worked on tracking down the terrorist(s) that caused this.

A few casualties here and there so far, but otherwise, it’s not _awful_ for an earthquake. If they kept the pace up, it should be cleaned up by the end of the week! Hallelujah to that, her friends!

Taking a moment to pause and catch her breath, she saw out of the corner of her eye two people decked out in government gear that _definitely_ shouldn’t have been out on the field. Bingo, there are the chucklefucks that caused this. Without thinking, she pounced on them by herself. She managed to take down one, but that one wasn’t the one with the big bad weapon she soon found out. She turned around and felt a mega punch to the side of her abdomen.

She was out cold. She soon woke up sore with a hand that was bloody due to it resting on top of her wound. Blood slowly trickled out of her mouth and down her chin. Fuck, she needs to figure out a way to stand. She can’t just lay here in this alleyway fore-- wait, is someone talking above her--

“You go out there and give them the terrorists and say The Guardians had to leave due to other matters at hand. You of all people should know that nobody should see Ellen in this state.”

That was Tommas, her somewhat second-in-command. He tended to have a stick up his ass, but he was very responsible and reliable. Plus, he wasn’t always an asshole. He had a soft spot that reminded her of a little bit of her brother. Speaking of him:

She could hear him practically gasping. His labored breathing ended with a giant intake of air to calm himself down, “Yeah, okay. Inform me of her status as soon as possible, got it?!” His voice got quieter and quieter as he semi-sprinted out of the alleyway.

“Of course!” Tommas yelled back, fully aware of the fact that Merek probably won’t hear him. Standing up quickly, he blinked at Ellen’s panic-filled groans from being jostled. He looked down to see her slowly approaching reality, “Ellen!--” he took a deep breath. He can’t be too loud for a number of reasons, “We’re going back to the base. I know a remedy there that can help you.”

Ellen, despite being critically injured, whined at the prospect of leaving the fight, at being _useless,_ “Nuuuu…” she lightly shoved at his chest, “My... team…”

Tommas rolled his eyes at her insistence, but the action was mostly because he was annoyed at how she continued to put herself in grave danger, “You trained them yourselves, surely they can handle a couple of hours alone.”

Ellen was going to try and protest again, but her injury spasmed, and instead of slurred words, wet coughing escaped her chest along with a little more blood. Oh man, has she always been shaking this badly? She’s surprised her body has the energy for that, especially considering the only thing she could do with her arms now was let them fall pathetically to her sides.

Tommas saw her growing weaker and took no hesitation to get his metallic wings out and start moving, but first, “Hey, now that you’re awake, _stay that way._ I make no promises that I can wake you back up, so for the love of God, _stay with me,_ Ellen.”

At that, Ellen froze, but for a different reason. She always forgot just how many people she’s met and how many bonds she’s formed. Always the guardian, always the protector, she’s been the one to say, ‘Stay with me.’ She’s had so many years of being with people who care about her, people that were her _family,_ yet every time they do something to show their care it always shocks her into stillness.

She may have broken the promise of not falling back asleep right as he landed outside the door to their base of operations and allowed blackness to overtake her vision, but just like magic, the darkness only felt like a few seconds long when she woke up again in her room’s bed with her wound, while still bandaged, only as deep as a bad case of rug burn. Her hand precariously hovered over the area inflicted before she heard coughing come from her doorway.

Tommas was there, and he only had a handful of things to say, “I called your brother who said he was going to bring your dad along with him when he came to pick you up. The reason he can come today was that he was able to call in a couple of favors so he won’t have to help with any of the major cleanups. Be wary of the rest of our team when they come in, even if it isn’t deep anymore, it can still hurt when roughly hugged. Also, when someone tells you to stay awake, _listen._ You told me this tidbit of information a while back, so I think I’ll take the time right now to remind you of it.”

After that wall of explaining/semi-ranting, Ellen’s eyes felt misty, but instead of crying, she smugly grinned at her loyal teammate, “Okay, sounds good, Tommas. Thanks for your hard work like always.”

After standing in pure awkward silence after her short-but-sweet response, all he did was quietly nod as he left the room, leaving her to think about the obvious.

Yup, even with his vague concern hidden behind criticism, even when the rest of her team burst into her room to smother her in much more blatant concern in the form of gentle hugs, even when her brother and dad came to pick her up just as Tommas said, she still thought about _it._

About how much her life has changed. She still has a long way to go, and near-death experiences will never end for her, but considering she never thought she could allow _this_ much comfort in her life that came _after_ those experiences for such a damn long time, she’ll say she’s made it pretty far.

Sleeping in her dad’s jacket in the back seat of Merek’s car, she slept feeling whole.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> please let me know of any typos! criticism is alright as long as ur respectful about it
> 
> If you wish to scream at me here's my [main tumblr](https://halorocks1214.tumblr.com/)
> 
> And while youre at it heres my [whump blog](https://whumpitlikeitshot.tumblr.com/)


	19. Muffled Scream

Part of Sora knows this wasn’t real and was only a nightmare, but emotions tend to outweigh logic in his subconscious, and the emotions are screaming at him to _run._

It’s black everywhere, and while the wind makes it feel like nothing is surrounding him and the floor feels as solid as floor can be, there’s this aura of goopiness that’s constantly dragging him down. Every time he throws his arm behind him to get more momentum in his sprint, he needs to yank it back in front of himself as if it were grabbed. After a few more seconds of sprinting like all he’s worth, when his right arm went behind him, this time, it _stayed there._

The fact that something _actually_ caught his arm tripped him up so badly that his legs shot out in front of him and he landed squarely on his back with a thud, effectively knocking the wind out of his diaphragm. As he wheezed in the process of getting his air back, he slowly became aware of the cold liquid that washed over his body. Before he knew it, he was widening his eyes, after all, _that’s all he could do._

Whatever goopy stuff he was feeling before was nearly encasing his body, trapping his arms, legs, waist, body, and even his neck, making it impossible to move. Some of the liquid even wrapped around his face in the shape of a gag, effectively muffling any noise that came from his mouth. He kept struggling until ominous footsteps approached from… somewhere??

“Well, I guess this is what it looks like when the cat catches the mouse, eh?”

Sora wasn’t aware that one could tense harder than a brick wall. He supposes whatever is happening is a first for everything, after all, the figure that slowly walked into his vision was _Xigbar,_ one of the infamous New Organization 13 members, and one of the ones Sora was the, er, “least fond” of having to see.

After the shock wore off, Sora, got mad. Where were his friends? His _family?_ If this man had done anything to them, he better be ready for when Sora broke out… but anything he did was futile. He simply squirmed like a worm trapped between someone’s fingers. He was lost and completely and utterly hopeless at the thought of being able to break out.

Xigbar let out a few dark laughs from his chest as he watched the boy try his hardest. Aww, it was honestly kind of cute how much he struggled. Bringing his gloved hand up, he suddenly clenched and unclenched his fist in a rather lethargic way.

Only confused for a moment, Sora was eventually hit with _ceaseless burning_ filling his body. His eyes widened as much as they physically could, and the only thing his body could do to counteract the pain was to arch his back as much as he could with his restraints. Alas, the pain never relented, heck, he could even argue that it got worse! His wide eyes started leaking tears, and if his hair wasn’t tangled in the goop, he might have wriggled that around as well.

The last thing he could do was scream and let it out. They were choked off, barely hearable from behind the goop that covered his lips. Meanwhile, Xigbar kept up his hand movements, and his smile curved more and more as the boy writhed in agony. The older man only stopped when he felt a cramp coming on in his muscles. The last thing he wanted to do was end this early to do over-exhaustion.

When Xigbar finally stopped, Sora’s back flattened, his eyes fluttered to release the last few tears, and his breathing became labored. He was still trapped in the restraints, and he wondered why in the world he hadn’t passed out from all of this already.

He flinched as Xigbar stepped just a little bit closer. Sora’s breathing picked up as he looked up into the eyes of his enemy. The only thing the young keyblade wielder could feel fill his veins was unbridled terror. What _more_ could this man want?!

All Xigbar did was simply stand to his full height over the small boy, grinning ear to ear while he did so, “Now then, scream a little bit louder. I think Mommy and Daddy need to hear this one.”

Sora saw nothing but white as pure panic took over his senses and he--

\--still couldn’t free himself, _what?!_ His arms were still forced closed to his body, and that alone was able to make him panic to the point of losing common sense. He could roll around now, at least, so all he could do was try flopping around like a fish until _something_ came of it. That something being another boy’s voice.

“Sora! Sora, it’s your sleeping bag! Everything’s okay! You’re not in--”

Sitting upright, Sora felt his lungs trying to heave themselves out of his chest. Still breathing as if he completed a triathlon, Sora realized that, _oh, it was a sleeping bag._ Blinking a few times, he also let his shoulders relax as he closed his eyes to circumvent what tears wanted to leak out. Taking a couple of moments to calm his erratic chest, once he did so, he opened his eyes to see a very concerned Ventus a few inches away. The blonde keyblade wielder was close enough if he needed to do anything physical, but far enough away to give his friend space.

Sora let his head fall back, soon followed by his body flopping onto his back. He was still taking many deep breaths, but he was no longer on the verge of hyperventilating, “Ugh, just a nightmare…”

Ventus watched his friend’s anxiety melt out of his body. After a few seconds, he made a suggestion, “Hey, would you like to get out of that sleeping bag? Or…”

Taking a moment to register Ventus’ words, Sora eventually blinked in recognition, “Oh! Oh, yeah, that’d be nice. Thanks…”

Within the next minute, the sleeping bag fell from around Sora’s shoulders and gave him even more room to breathe. The way his arms and shoulders sagged would remind you of a bean bag chair being picked up by one hand. All the while, Ventus watched with a look that could be described as careful speculation. Again, after a little bit of silence, Ventus began to speak, “You wanna talk about it?”

Sora thought about the question for a minute before shaking his head, “N-No, not right now. Maybe another time, sorry, I just--”

“Woah, hey! Sora,” Ventus interjected warmly, a small smile appearing on his face, “I get it. That’s why I asked. I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable.”

Sora stared at his friend until Ventus finished talking. Once he did, Sora shakily nodded his head, “Y-yeah, thank you…” Then, more silence, followed by Sora’s quiet voice, “How do you… deal with these?”

Ventus had brought his vision to the stars during the silence and only looked at Sora out of the corner of his eye when he heard the brunette start to speak. Leaning back, Ventus let out a sigh. His eyes got slightly forlorn, “I mean, if we’re being honest, my issue isn’t nightmares, I barely get them when I fall asleep. The issue is I barely fall asleep _in general._”

Sora raised his eyebrows as Ventus continued, “To make a long story short, I just can’t handle the idea of going to sleep and not waking up again. I’ve already missed so much…” Ventus cut himself off for a second, “I know Aqua and Terra wouldn’t let it happen, but… still, the fear is always there.”

Sora watched as the blonde boy moved to rest his chin on his knees as he wrapped his arms around his legs. Thinning his lips, an idea came to Sora, “How’s about we help each other, then? Let’s share a sleeping bag, at least tonight, okay?”

Now it was Ventus’ turn to raise his eyebrows in confusion while the other person continued to speak, which was Sora, “You being next to me will hopefully prevent anything from occurring again, and even if I get another nightmare and thrash around as violently as that, _surely_ it’ll be enough to wake you up. Honestly, I’m only worried about _smacking_ you with how bad it got tonight. Once I wake up either from another nightmare or in the morning, I can wake you up as well.”

Ventus simply looked at Sora blankly until he finished speaking. As soon as he did, Ventus smirked, “Yeah, okay, that sounds like a good idea.”

With lots of moving around until they were comfortable, as well as a couple of ‘ow’s and ‘oof’s and ‘oh, sorry’s, they were both inside the sleeping bag. They laid shoulder to shoulder, both staring up at the stars. The smiles they had were small but sweet, and they soon felt their respective exhaustion wash over themselves.

Sora closed his eyes, feeling as safe as can be, “Goodnight, dude.”

Much to his disbelief, Ventus found his eyes closing as well, “Same to you.”

No more nightmares or anxiety-induced fears filled their minds for the rest of the night. In the morning, Aqua and Terra would find them like that. Grinning like proud parents, they did their work around the sleeping pair. If Terra stopped a couple of times to take a few pictures, then no one needed to know.

Except for Aqua, but she wasn’t telling anyone about this anytime soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i keep giving these poor kids nightmares with these prompts. somebody stop me
> 
> please let me know of any glaring issues! im okay with criticism as long as youre nice about it <3
> 
> If you wish to scream at me here's my [main tumblr](https://halorocks1214.tumblr.com/)
> 
> And while youre at it heres my [whump blog](https://whumpitlikeitshot.tumblr.com/)


	20. Asphyxiation

No, Kotetsu was _not_ getting old, and if you try and argue that chances are you’ll get punched through a wall. 

Well, that’ll only happen if you’re playing the bad guy at the moment, most people just get a smack or two, i.e. Bunny over there sure loves to keep pointing out his ever-growing wrinkle collection, the prick. This time the one pointing out how close Kotetsu was approaching the middle part of his life _was_ a bad guy, who conveniently split the highway in half and nearly killed a dozen or so civilians, so Kotetsu didn’t feel too bad about giving this guy a little bit more than just a punch.

The villain yelled out behind him as he leaped from rooftop to rooftop, “Try to catch your receding hairline before you catch me, dude!”

Oh yeah, _definitely_ more than a punch.

They both landed in the alleyway below the roof they were previously on, Kotetsu ready to throw down. He still had like, 20 seconds of his ability, so he was feeling stellar if he was going to be honest. He chased after the criminal for 5 seconds and caught up to him very easily. The dude might have been a NEXT, but whatever his powers were clearly didn’t involve speed of any kind. Right as he was a few inches behind the dude, he reached his hand out and--

\--was completely caught off guard by the man turning around as quickly as lightning and gripping his forearm and squeezing _hard._ Along with that, those last 15 seconds he felt he had? Gone. The blue glow he always gets when he uses his powers faded away from him the more and more the guy gripped his arm. He grunted and kicked and scratched, but the hold never loosened.

The evil man was grinning maliciously at the hero’s feeble attempts, “Did you know my NEXT ability involved blocking others’ abilities? As long as my hands make contact with your skin, your powers are rendered completely useless. It also has just a little bit of invincibility, so that’s a bonus.”

_No, he didn’t, but he sure as fuck does now!_

Right before he could use any of his famous quips, the villain brought his other hand that was dangling at his side to Kotetsu’s neck. Before the tannish man could blink, a force similar to the one around his arm currently started crushing his throat. The noises that came from said throat were God awful, and he bets peoples’ first guess as to what’s making them would be ‘a dead animal’.

It felt like a demonic boa constrictor was currently killing him. Struggling the entire time, he brought both of his hands and tried scratching the dude’s arm _again,_ and, not surprisingly, he didn’t get anywhere. The baddie just continued grinning and grinning as the ‘weak hero’ in front of him slowly lost his life. Right as Kotetsu’s arms did the dramatic movie scene move where they slowly fall to his sides, he heard a familiar, young, feminine voice that made even more goosebumps crawl up his back.

“Uh, excuse me, mister?”

_Kaede._

_What_ the _**fuck.**_

He let out a small whine, but the man paid no attention. He simply dropped Kotetsu on his ass and left him to deal with his crushed windpipe. While the coughing in the background gave him some pleasure, he was too busy focused on the girl in front of him, “Who are you, little girl? Shouldn’t you be with your parents?”

‘That _is_ my parent, jerkwad,’ she smiled warmly, hiding her true emotions behind a guise of naivety, “Oh, don’t worry, they don’t need to know about how big I am a fan of yours! I’ve seen how quickly you’ve taken down heroes on TV, not to mention all the cool stories about you! I just _had_ to meet you in real life!”

The man fell right for it, “Oh? You are? Well, then tell me what you know about me! Don’t worry, I’ll fill in the gaps or fix any mistake.”

Kaede sauntered toward him in a playful walk. She rammed up her sweet talk meter to over 100, “You’ve broken out of jail three times already,” she was directly in front of him, “you’ve killed about 5 or so officers in your rampages in the street,” she lightly grazed her finger over his arm and felt up his cool skin, “you’ve got quite the decked out body in my opinion,” she was standing directly behind him, “and…”

Her hand suddenly gripped his arm. It was nowhere near as strong as his grip, but that didn’t matter, “You’re a filthy, dirty person who’s trying to kill my papa!”

The man blinked out of his ego trip, “Wha--”

“You said that if your hands touch someone it blocks their powers, right?” Kaede asked innocently, “Well, me NEXT ability is what I like to call, ‘Copycat’. Whoever I touched last is what NEXT powers I will have on hand until I touch someone new.”

The man tried fighting back when Kaede just shrugged her shoulders, finishing the fight right then and now, not giving him a chance to fight, “Too bad that’s not going to matter in a few seconds anyway.”

With a large ‘hyaah!’ Kaede brought her leg up directly into his crotch, and the squeal of shock alone gave her a grin that would last a lifetime. She pulled away and watched as the baddie pathetically crumbled in front of her, first bringing his hands over his sensitive parts, then falling over onto his face and passing out due to the pain.

With a huff, Kaede was satisfied. Now all that left was her dad, Kotetsu, who had only managed to sit up by this point. As he slowly regained his clarity, Kaede slowly came over to her dad and kneeled, waiting for him to speak.

His voice was rough and scratchy so that probably didn’t help bring out the edge he wanted in his tone, “Missy, just--” a cough, “--what are you--” another one, “doing here?!”

She flinched a little bit, highly aware of the fact that she deserves about 98-99% of the chewing out she was going to get. She hoped to at least explain her actions to the 1-2% that was hopefully still in him, “Well, I heard about this villain that none of you’ve been able to catch, so I did some research and figured out his powers. I needed to be in town for a photography project, and as I was taking a picture of the skyline, I saw you leaping from rooftop to rooftop chasing after some dude! His body stature reminded me of pictures of the villain I researched, so I kind of maybe followed you to here and panicked when I saw you choking? So, yeah…” She twiddled her fingers together nervously.

The glare he tried giving his daughter was pathetic at best, “You know that--” he coughed again, “--that it’s highly irresponsible to--” he leaned into his elbow for that one, “--to follow heroes when they’re!--” Jesus! He became a rolly-polly due to how hard he coughed that time.

Kaede sat up straighter when she saw her dad start to lose it, “Jeez, I know, I know! I’ll take whatever grounding I can get later, but _please_ save your strength, daddy. Right before I walked into the alleyway I called an ambulance, so just stay calm, okay?” She didn’t hide her fear-filled squeak at the end of that as well as she wanted to.

Oh shit, she was really scared. Dammit… Alright, this wasn’t going to be the last they talked about it, but she’s on the verge of breaking down and him of passing out, they can put a pin in it. He waved her off and gave a smile that would hopefully comfort his daughter, “Don’t--” cough, “--worry about--” yet another, “me, okay? You’re--” and another, “--right, let’s postpone--” boy, these coughs keep coming, eh? “--the talking-to for when I’m not--” oof, that one was wet that time, “--suffocating to death, capiche?”

Small tears leaked out of her eyes as she brought her tiny hand forward to be held in his, “Okay, Dad, that sounds fantastic. But you have to promise to never let go, okay? It’s really important that my hand never loses contact with yours.”

He was tired of coughing, so he just nodded his head as sirens rounded the corner.

Just like how he’d been doing it the past couple of weeks to make up for missed parties and first days of school, Kotetsu kept his promise to his daughter, intent of following through with it.

Throughout everything, he never let go of her hand. In the ride to the hospital, in the ER, and even when he needed an IV in that hand, he didn’t loosen his grip one bit. The only reason they separated was that they gave Kotetsu painkillers because they are required to do that. Not that he’s complaining, his throat _was_ practically killing him because of pain alone.

When he woke back up from his snooze, he found his hand was cold. Panicking for only a millisecond, he sat up eventually found Kaede sleeping in a chair with her head laying on _Barnaby_ of all people. Literally, and his head was on top of hers too! Talk about one hell of a wake-up.

Then, Kotetsu’s eyes trailed downward. That’s when he saw it.

The two people he loved most in this world were _holding hands._

Unless some kind of nurse or even God talked to them, they did that themselves. They looked at each other and mutually decided, ‘Hey, let’s do this really intimate act between a child and a parent figure!’ That made Kotetsu feel things he didn’t think were possible, even under the influence of medically-legal drugs.

Regardless, the smirk that overtook his face was undoubtedly cheeky.

He’ll let his family sleep peacefully, for now, especially considering he already got his turn in. Clicking the big red button to call in a nurse to let them know he’s awake, he simply leaned back into his pillow to get as comfortable as possible. All the while he looked over his family like a loving mother bear. He was fiercely loyal and protective. God forbid anyone touched or even came near his family in a threatening way.

… Nah, he watched over them more like a tiger. A big, fluffy but deadly tiger, one who would give everything to keep his family safe.

If she were awake, Kaede would totally appreciate the comparison.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i really got nothing extra to say for this chap. hope you enjoy
> 
> let me know of any typos that interrupt your reading~ im okay with criticism as long as it comes from a place of respect <3
> 
> If you wish to scream at me here's my [main tumblr](https://halorocks1214.tumblr.com/)
> 
> And while youre at it heres my [whump blog](https://whumpitlikeitshot.tumblr.com/)


	21. Trembling

It always the trembling, _always._

Ellen has tried so much to hide it, and to an extent, she did. She did it really well, actually. She ran away and dealt with panic attacks by herself, any fear in she felt in a dangerous situation was written off with plenty sarcasm and snark, plus, certain nights she could just use the excuse of it being cold! That still made people concerned about her wellbeing, but at least they didn’t pry into the excuse any further.

But, alas, time went on, she gained more and more family (for better or worse) who had examining skills as good as hers, and they saw it. They saw when she was nervous about having to face somebody bigger than her through the small tremors she desperately tried to hide (oh how that hurt finding that out in the beginning), her vaguely wide eyes as she felt an attack coming on, and, yeah, she can get cold easily, but usually her tremors caused by chills aren’t forcefully tried to be kept down, unlike her other ones.

They hated it, but sometimes, it was the only sign they got that Ellen was uncomfortable with the real plan, or that she really _was_ biting off more than she could chew. If someone was sizing Ellen up and she started to shake, Merek had no hesitation stepping in between them and putting his foot down. Arms wrapped around her shoulders when it started, and if it didn’t stop, they’d ignore her embarrassed blushing when they shrugged off their jackets for her. It stemmed from her instance that she didn’t need (or deserve) the help. The idea that if she shows any kind of weakness she’ll be kicked out by those she loved <s>again</s>.

These things are stuff Vincent doesn’t like to think about too much unless he has to.

Which he has to right now. He can’t help but sigh for his daughter.

It’s a long story, but to make it short: they were in the middle of a huge disappearing children case. Ellen was de-aged due to a previous scuffle, but it was a de-aging where she didn’t lose her memories. An adult mind in a 6 to 7-year-old’s body and all that jazz. So, obviously, she thought she could still handle it like she normally could. Well, you can bet you know where that landed her.

After being gone for two days, they followed her trail that she had left to find her and the other kids. The perps were taken down (possibly a little bit more violently than Ellen’s family normally does), Ellen was given gratuitous hugs from everybody, and in the car ride home whatever curse or spell that was put on her wore off. They blinked and she was all of a sudden her (still tiny) adult self.

Vincent was the one driving since Merek had to do calls/texts during the trip. Get paperwork sorted out and set up witness meetings, things like that. His wife, who literally got back into the country a day before they ambushed the kidnappers and instantly knew something was wrong, was dozing in shotgun, and the sight put a smile on Vincent’s face. That left his daughter, Ellen. His sweet, too-caring for her own good daughter in the back seat next to Merek. She was looking out the window with a face that could be described as “tired”, but there was something else Vincent felt was off.

Squinting his eyes at the rearview mirror a little bit more, he finally put his finger on what was wrong.

She was starting to shake. Again.

Back when they found her as a child, she was trembling pretty badly. Their hugs and reassurances pretty much wiped it all away, thank God, but now it appeared to be only a temporary solution. Something else was bothering her, or maybe she hid how much the original thing was upsetting her. Vincent thinned his lips involuntarily. He can’t get even get annoyed at her, he gets it. They all do. They all have issues in the emotional department, but that doesn’t make it any easier to deal with.

Focusing back on the road, Vincent made a mental note to gently talk to her later. Meanwhile, he just turned up the heater nonchalantly. Outside of the occasional phone call Merek had to make/take, or the clicking of his thumbs on the phone’s keyboard, no noise filled the car the rest of the way home.

Merek got dropped off at work so he could finish up in his office. He leaned back into the window and waved goodbye, sending his dad a look that said, ‘You know what to do, okay?’

Ah, so he saw it too. Of course, he would.

Now they were back at their cafe-house. Jennifer gave Ellen one last kiss goodnight before slithering off to her bedroom where Vincent would join her shortly. He watched his daughter aimlessly walk around their couch for the next couple of minutes while he made drinks in the kitchen. He definitely noted how she stopped shaking when they dropped Merek off. She was making sure nobody could see what she was doing.

Welp, they did, and now’s the time to get it out.

“Hey, Ellen?” Vincent probed as he walked out to join her. He had a mug of tea for himself and a cup of soda for her: she doesn’t like tea. She must have sat down on the couch in the few seconds he took his eyes off her because that’s where she was when he left the kitchen. When he spoke, she snapped her head up from the floor to look at him. 

As Vincent sat down next to her, she cleared her throat, “Yes?”

Closed off. Short and quick. She’s allowing the least amount of time to show any weakness and Vincent’s heart panged in his chest, “I just wanted to see how you’re doing. I know how much you hate being de-aged, especially when you remember that you’re not really a child, or when you get kidnapped while it’s happening.”

Ellen snorted. Good, she’s relaxing around him, “Yeah, you’re not wrong. Don’t worry, Dad, I’m fine.”

‘Fine’ is an arbitrary word in their dictionaries. Vincent took a deep breath through his nose, “I know you are, it’s just… I saw that you were a little bit more tired than I thought you were in the car. There’s nothing we missed right? They didn’t…” Oh, shit, Vincent didn’t even _consider_ that possibility, and now that he has, some anger started to boil over, “They didn’t try anything, did they? Because if so, th--”

“Oh, oh my gosh, no!” Ellen interjected quickly. Yeah, that would’ve been bad if anything like that happened. Thankfully, it didn’t, “No, they weren’t like… _that._ I would’ve seen it on the kids if they were. Hell, I would’ve taken them down myself, size and identity be damned,” Vincent grinned that that. Ellen grinned at his grin, “I promise, I’m good. I was just spooked real bad and overwhelmed.”

Vincent sighed, vaguely aware of the fact that their drinks were turning luke-warm, “Okay, just making sure. You can tell me if there’s anything wrong, though. You got that?”

Ellen (tightly) nodded her head, “Of course, Dad.”

Vincent let out a tired smile as he brought his hand up to rub her back. Right as it landed, he almost didn’t hear the hiss she tried hiding or the flinch that was barely pulled back. He yanked his hand away as if she were molten lava, and he watched as she tried hiding her ever-growing panic, “Ellen… Are you hurt?”

Ellen sharply inhaled, “N-No, I’m just sore. You saw how they picked me up like a ragdoll, heh, Merek sure as hell did. He was so close to turning that dude’s face into a pancake.”

Her nervous chuckling didn’t help persuade Vincent to drop it. Actually, it made him push more, “Ellen if you’re still injured we need to treat it properly. It’s okay. Just let me look at--”

“_NO!_”

Vincent nearly jumped out of his pants. He flinched back, the arm that he was going to use to check Ellen pushed up against his chest by his own conviction. His eyes were wide, but not as much as his daughter’s. She only shouted that one word, but even that was enough for Ellen to realize that she was letting more on than she wanted to.

Her breathing picked up speed as she scooted away from him on the couch and wrapped her arms around her stomach, “N-No, it’s okay, it’s fine! It’s not the worst I’ve had, I promise! Besides! It happened while I defended the other kids, so honestly, I probably deserve some of it? But not like that! It’s just that--”

As she continued her panicked ranting and explanation, tears leaked out of her eyes and she started to tremble, violently, unaware of the horror growing in Vincent at what he was seeing. 

Oh, sweetheart... 

Vincent’s eyes drooped in sympathy. He put his hands up in a surrender position, hoping to get his point across. When Ellen saw her dad raise his hands over his head, she clicked her mouth shut and watched him. She had tear tracks down her face, arms around her abdomen and her body still shaking like a leaf. Vincent took one breath to calm himself before he started, “Ellen… there’s a lot to unpack there, and I’m pretty sure we can’t fix it tonight, but I know we can fix whatever injury you may have gotten, okay? I won’t think less of you,” hell, he’ll probably think the entire world of her, taking hits for small children like that, “Nor do I think that you deserved it. Any of it. I just want to clean it and bandage it, alright?”

Taking a few deep breaths to calm herself down, Ellen gulped, “Okay… okay.”

With a sigh of relief, Vincent put his hands down and went to go get the first-aid kit. When he came back, Ellen had her back to where he was sitting on the couch with her shirt off. He wasn’t even looking when he came over and set the kit down on the table. He only looked when the kit was open and he was situated to clean her back. What he saw made him hiss and her flinch at his reaction.

He quickly set a comforting hand on her shoulder, “Hey, I’m not upset at you, okay? I promise.”

But he _was_ upset in general, very much so. Ellen’s back wasn’t bleeding or broken, but it was _covered_ in red welts. One unmistakenly made by a belt. Those people gave these to her when she was simply a _child_ in their eyes. He had to take a few more breaths to calm himself. Putting antiseptic on while trembling with rage was no fun. He knows that firsthand.

Besides, he can save his rage for when he runs into Merek tomorrow morning and lowkey drops the tidbit of Ellen’s injured back to his son, who just so happened to be on his way to interrogate the bad guys. Vincent grinned at the thought. There, the antisceptic was done. If Ellen was bothered by it, she hid it very well, unfortunately.

When he set the bottle of cleaner down, Ellen spoke up quietly, “Some kids were caught stealing extra food. I couldn’t just sit by and let it happen, so I said it was my idea. Happened about two or so hours before you showed up.”

Vincent simply nodded his head throughout her explanation. He replied when started applying the bandages, “Makes sense. While I’m not thrilled it happened, I am _proud_ of you.”

Once he tied off the bandage, Ellen quickly turned around to look at him in the eyes. She was trembling again, but that could’ve been for a number of reasons. Vincent took off his coat that he had just realized he never took off (Jesus, he was _that_ lost in thought?) and wrapped it around her shoulders and back, practically hiding her in it (gosh, she was so tiny sometimes), “Not many people are willing to step up like you are, and I will never stop being amazed at how caring you’ve become despite it all. I love you, sweetheart. I really do hope you never change.”

Emotions swelled and swelled in Ellen’s chest as he spoke. When he took his hands away from her shoulders, she leaped forward into his chest, wrapping her arms around his back. With an ‘oof’, he wrapped his around her as well and fell over onto his back. Looking up at the ceiling, he grinned, “Goodnight, Ellen.”

Ellen shoved her face further into his chest, “Goodnight, Dad.”

As they fell asleep, her trembling went away until it was nonexistent.

Jennifer woke up to a bed with one of its sides cold. Sitting up confused (and a little worried), she left her room still wearing her nightgown and walked out into the living area. When she saw the scene before her, she laid a hand on her chest and smiled.

Her daughter was dead asleep in her father’s coat, drooling slightly on his chest. Vincent’s head laid to look to one side as he kept his arms around her. Being as quiet as possible, Jennifer tiptoed over to them to pick up the first aid kit and clean it up to put it away.

After that, she made sure to be even quieter until they woke up.

Her family needs their rest after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey yall remember that [whump post i made about trembling?](https://whumpitlikeitshot.tumblr.com/post/186717202991/when-the-whumpee-is-shakingtrembling-for-whatever) yeah it was purely because of my OC. this prompt called to me the second i saw it lmao
> 
> please let me know of any glaring typos~ im okay with criticism as long as it it respectful
> 
> If you wish to scream at me here's my [main tumblr](https://halorocks1214.tumblr.com/)
> 
> And while youre at it heres my [whump blog](https://whumpitlikeitshot.tumblr.com/)


	22. Laced Drink

He should’ve listened to Mystery.

But he was bored, okay? Lewis and Vivi wanted to go see a movie he hated with a passion, so that left him on his own for the night. His headspace was pretty good-- or it was for the night, at least-- so he knows that they’re not leaving or abandoning him. Hell, even if he did, their resistance to leave him alone and want to reschedule the movie for another day sure would have reminded him.

He insisted that they could all go out to the mall together in a week. He knows how much they like their cheesy movies, and they deserve this break. He deserves one too, but his idea of a relaxing time didn’t involve a movie that he would gag periodically at. Instead, he ended up at a local bar to try a couple of so-called “girly drinks”. His friends never got on his case for his love of fruity alcohol, but many other times, the people in the bar did. 

Mystery warned him against going to a bar, but he shrugged it off. This town was pretty quiet, what could happen if he went and bought _one_ drink and came home as if nothing happened?

Mystery squinted his eyes, “You know more than any of us that _everyhting_ is possible, Arthur.”

Arthur was out the door one second later.

There was barely anyone in the place he went, so that’s a bonus. Seriously, outside of a couple of people passed out in booths and one at the counter, it was practically _desolate._ Maybe that should’ve been the cue to go home and read a book instead.

Regardless, he sat down right in front of the bartender and read the menu. After a minute of contemplating, he ordered something called “Complementary Surprise”. It incorporated the complementary colors and the whole shtick was that you didn’t know which. When the drink was brought out, Arthur had to hold back a squeal at the sight of blue and orange filling his glass. Booyah, those are his favorite!

He took a sip and his eyes fluttered. He wasn’t aware you could mix orange and blueberry in a way that could make it taste this magical. You could probably forget that you were drinking alcohol in the first place. He got about halfway through when he nearly jumped at the guy (_who was originally asleep_) at the bar came over and sat next to him.

He struck up pleasant conversation, “Heeeeyy duuuuudee… Hooooww’ss iiiitt hhaaaaannggiiiinngg?”

As much as he could drunk off his ass. Arthur nervously gulped and thought of ways of gently telling this stranger off, “Uuh, pretty good, I guess? This drink is really good, and my bed was recently washed and cleaned with a new detergent, so that will be fun to sleep in tonight.”

“Oh, really?” The stranger was suddenly sober, “Are you sure about that bed part?”

Oh, shit. Standing up rapidly, Arthur knocked over the rest of his drink that spilled out over the counter. He had to grip the edge so he wouldn’t fall over, after all, his vision was blurry and his head was fuzzy. An insane amount of dizziness filled his head, and it took everything in him to not vomit. He blearly looked up at the bartender, who had the same evil smile as the stranger who just faked being drunk, but why?

Suddenly, the rest of the bar’s inhabitants started crowding Arthur with similar grins. It was only about 4 or 5 people (including the bartender), but Arthur knew he was in deep shit. That’s when it hit him what was happening.

It’s a motherfucking _cult._

_Because it always is._

He and his friends were well known in supernatural communities nowadays, which meant bad guys of many shapes and sizes and motivations would be after them. Why _he_ as the only _normal, non-supernatural human_ in the group tended to receive the brunt of it all will never, ever stop annoying him.

Arthur was vaguely aware of being dragged out of the back door by his wrists. He felt every bump and ridge hit his bum and ankles. Ow… Ow… Ow… The chill of the night air hit his skin. Finally, they were outside. They stopped walking for a minute, Arthur’s head lolled at the loss of momentum. Tires quietly squealed nearby, and the only thing Arthur could hope for was that he wouldn’t get shoved in the trunk.

Even though he was under the influence of drugs, when the familiar noise of a trunk popping open was heard, he couldn’t stop the sigh that left his mouth.

He felt arms try and pick him up from under his armpits along with around his knees. Keyword being _try,_ as before he could blink, he was roughly dropped on his ass as the group of people that were capturing him was startled by… something? They were backing away from him, and Arthur couldn’t put his finger on it.

Then he heard loud growling, followed by the crushing of the roof of a car with its windows being shattered. Despite being out of it, his eyebrows raised. Ah, Mystery came after him. It appeared that Mystery was very displeased at what was going down. The wolf-monster was not going to let these plebians off easily. He jumped off the dented car roof and attacked.

Arthur fell asleep to the sounds of the cult’s panicked screaming.

It put a smile on his face.

\---

At least the bed he wakes up in is always soft, so he has that going for him.

Shuffling a little bit, he felt a little bit more. He flattened his eyebrows and wiggled his shoulders to find that not only was what he was laying on was soft, but also _furry._ It was also _breathing._ So he wasn’t laying on a bed at all. He was laying on Mystery, who he conveniently noticed was also wrapped around him like a snake with mother-instincts. 

This is when he noticed the splitting headache.

Roofies will do that to you, regardless of the intention they were used. Arthur couldn’t stop the groan that left his mouth, nor the action of tilting his head to the side. He was now looking in the direction of Mystery’s many tails. Blinking, he saw a cup of water with a couple of tablets next to it on the tiny part of the floor that _wasn’t_ covered in white fur or black paws. 

On the cup was a sticky note. Downing the pills and taking a generous drink of water, Arthur read the note. It was short and sweet, probably written by Vivi. Arthur’s grip on the glass tightened and his eyes widened slightly when he read the last part.

**Glad to see you okay, boo-boo! Mystery told us what happened, so here are a couple of things that should make anything that hurts better <3**

**P.S. Don’t think you won’t be able to get out of this conversation. Try to and I might not be able to stop Lewis from burning your pillows into ashes again. XOXO**

Arthur nervously chuckled. Ah, that was going to be fun. They didn’t think it was his fault, but they knew he would try and brush it off as not a big deal.

Wait, why is the glass still at his lips? Jesus, did he really drink it all that quickly? Setting the glass back down, Arthur made a move to get up, but when he heard quiet growling, he froze.

“Don’t even think about trying to flee, Mr. Kingsmen.”

Arthur threw his hands up in a way that said, ‘Don’t maim me please!’ “Hey, I need to pee! But I guess if you’re into that…”

Mystery lifted his head to glare at Arthur, but this time, it was in annoyance, “Very funny. You have such a refined taste in humor,” Arthur let out a hearty laugh, “Alright, fine. You may go release your bladder, but if you’re not back in ten minutes tops, I _will_ do find you and drag you back into my side.”

Arthur stood up, stretched to bring back his blood flow, and rolled his eyes, “Jeez, I’m only going pee! I don’t need a thousand years, I’m not fifty.”

Mystery was unfazed, “Need I remind you of two weeks ago--”

Arthur sped up, “I got the message!”

Just like he promised, Arthur came back to a Mystery looking at his own paws lost in thought. With a flop, Arthur fell into the kitsune’s side. Mystery couldn’t stop the “oof” that left his mouth. He turned around to see a grin from ear to ear on Arthur’s face. Clearly, the man was content with napping the day away.

So was Mystery.

Mystery huffed with a hint of sarcasm behind it before laying his head back down, “Asshole.”

Arthur tightened his hold around his friend, smugly grinning, “Prick.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lord help me for im falling beHIND AAAAA--
> 
> please let me know of any glaring typos! criticism is fine as long as its given respectfully~
> 
> If you wish to scream at me here's my [main tumblr](https://halorocks1214.tumblr.com/)
> 
> And while youre at it heres my [whump blog](https://whumpitlikeitshot.tumblr.com/)


	23. Hallucination

_Dave just has to ask: does it always have to be the roof?_

_Another day, another match, another time Dave is interrupted during his DJ-ing. At least Bro didn’t drag him away this time. He just roughly opened the door and stood and stared at Dave until the younger dude got the message. With a sigh, Dave took off his headphones and followed Bro to the roof with the same knot in his stomach as always._

_The sparring started, and Dave got his ass handed to him. _As always._ However, in his defense, he was caught a little off guard when Bro randomly whispered out “Dave…?” cautiously. Then again, Bro was probably just going to chastize Dave for letting his emotions get the better of him. The next thing Dave knew was that he was rolling against the floor (which felt weirdly flat and smooth today, unlike its normal gravelly texture) and ended up on his side._

_With a groan, Dave tried focusing on Bro. At this point, Bro would zoom off on his radical hoverboard, never to be seen for the next few days, leaving Dave to patch everything up and ration out food until he got back. Dave had to blink twice when he saw his older brother start to walk towards him again instead._

_Wait, Bro’s not stopping?_

_Oh shit, oh fuck-- what the hell is happening?!_

_Raw panic filled Dave as he tried scooting away from Bro on his butt. He didn’t do a very good job as he was still weak from the previous spar. He could only back up a few inches before dizziness overtook him and he fell over. He mindlessly clenched at the air right above the ground, tensing as he saw Bro’s feet step closer and closer._

_He has no idea how, but right as Bro knelt and started reaching toward his face with his blank, emotionless stare, Dave found a rush of adrenaline take over his body. With Bro’s hand a few inches away from his face, the younger brother tightly shut his eyes, clenched his fist as much as possible and blindly swung. He felt some tension release from his shoulders as his fist connected right on the older man’s jawline and--_

\-- Dave opened his eyes to watch _Dirk_ (not Bro-- well, technically yes Bro but you get the difference) quickly bring his hand to his jaw as he toppled. Dave’s heart stopped and all of time froze. His breath picked up speed quite fast as he watched Dirk rub the now-bruised part of his face to try and register what happened.

Oh fuck oh fuck of fuck oh fuck-- that was the only thing being spoken in Dave’s mind. He just assaulted Dirk for no reason other than his incompetence. He was totally hyperventilating at this point, and the dark edges around his vision would’ve probably overtaken everything if he didn’t hear the man in front of him gently speak. Dave couldn’t tell if Dirk was speaking quietly not to startle him or if the blood rushing around his ears was just that loud.

“Dave, hey, breath with me. That’s it. In. Out. In. Out. Keep it up. There you go…”

Slowly but surely, Dave brought all of his senses back down to a reasonable level. Once it felt like the jackhammer in his chest finally turned off, he took one large deep breath and sigh. Saying nothing, Dirk helped his younger brother to sit up against the wall. Having a straight back tends to help his own panic attacks, after all.

Dave just realized that he kept his eyes closed throughout all of that series of calming down motions. He squinted them open to see Dirk about two feet away, leaning his own back against the bed frame. He’s making sure he can help Dave if needed, but not getting too close in case his, er, ‘physical’ features set off Dave again.

Dave couldn’t help the sigh that left his mouth once more, “S-Sorry, dude, I know how much my right hooks can down a man…”

Dirk raised an eyebrow before smirking, “I’d say, I don’t know why you need swords with fists like that.”

Dave let out one singular chuckle. The awkwardness lifted for only a moment before it quickly returned. The two brothers just flickered their visions around the room, seemingly at a loss for what to say. Dirk obviously didn’t hold it against Dave, lord knows what he’s done during his flashbacks/nightmares, but that didn’t mean he knew how to comfort him as well.

Regardless, he had it in himself to try, “Do you, uh, want to talk about it?”

Dave took a second to register his brother’s question, “Oh, you know, same old shit. Bro’s ‘training’ sessions. I guess my brain just decided to imprint what I was seeing into more than just a nightmare, though. I briefly wondered why my gravel rooftop was smooth as wood.”

Dirk snorted, but then nodded in understanding. Nothing more, nothing less, “... Would you like me to leave? Seeing me probably isn’t the best for your mind, I get that.”

Again, Dave had a brief moment of contemplation, “... No, I don’t.”

Dirk widened his eyes, not expecting that response, “Oh… then I guess I’ll stay.”

Now it was Dave’s turn to nod before sighing _again._ Man, exhaling is really cathartic, isn’t it? “... Can you… can you sit next to me?”

Dirk actually had to shake his head this time because he was so caught off guard, “Uh, are you sure?”

Dave just shrugged his shoulders, “I mean, I’m serious about wanting to be a real family with you, and I can’t do that if I see Bro in your eyes all the time,” Dirk sharply inhaled but made no move to comment on anything else, “So, I might as well drown out all the bad memories with good ones, you know? Instead of associating triangle shades with pain, maybe I can associate them with, er, what’s the word? ‘Safety’?”

Dirk was flabbergasted. He cleared his throat, shuffling anxiously over to Dave, “I mean, yeah, I get that, but…” With one last awkward movement, Dirk was shoulder-to-shoulder with Dave and had an arm around his shoulders, “Just let me know if you’re ever uncomfortable, okay? I out of all people would hate to do that to you.”

Dave honest to God _snuggled_ further into the heat of his brother’s body, “Don’t worry, you’ll _definitely_ know if I even feel the slightest amount of discomfort at what’s happening.

Again, Dirk only nodded nervously. He felt as if he tried speaking he would just choke on his own spit. Instead, he laid his cheek atop Dave’s head and allowed his chest to calm the fuck down. Second by second, it did, and Dirk found himself drifting off alongside Dave who was doing the same.

Dave would never admit it out loud willingly, but he went back to sleep with a grin.

In the morning, Dave would regret it. Not the cuddling (though, he does find it a wee bit embarrassing), but the fact he slept against the hard wall. That shit puts cricks in your back and neck that lasts for _weeks._ It totally kills the mood for the rest of the day.

Oh well, at least it makes Dirk take his special massage baths for cramps and knots in his muscles. Last time Dirk did that, Dave made him nearly shit his metaphorical pants with a prank. It’s still funny thinking about it today. Dave even kept the mask from the incident too.

How will Dave ever top that prank? Maybe John can lend him some clown stuff...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> short since i had trouble writing this one :/ regardless, I hope you enjoy!
> 
> please let me know of any glaring typos~ criticism is fine as long as you give it respectfully <3
> 
> If you wish to scream at me here's my [main tumblr](https://halorocks1214.tumblr.com/)
> 
> And while youre at it heres my [whump blog](https://whumpitlikeitshot.tumblr.com/)


	24. Bleeding Out

Kotetsu groaned, which hurt his stomach more, which made him curl in on himself more, which made him groan _more,_ which made--

Yeah, you get the picture.

He witnessed a second mugging on the way home. He had already used his powers during a previous one about 2 hours ago, and he knew it was a risk to still take the new person on. He’s starting to wish he saved his powers for this one instead of the first. The first was two ladies in the middle of a dispute. This time, it was two men. The one holding the knife was much larger than the one who was on the verge of cowering in fear.

Taking a deep breath, he ran in and grabbed the man’s arm before he could swing and hurt the smaller one. Kotetsu was successful in stopping the mugger, yes, but the man turned around with a speed that Kotetsu thought for a second the dude could be a NEXT. The mugger was angry at being interrupted and used his free hand to grab Kotetsu’s other arm that wasn’t gripping anything. Then, Kotetsu blinked and had a knife in the side of his stomach. Yay.

Kotetsu stumbled and tripped until he ended up on his ass in a pile of garbage bags filled with what was most likely ungodly dirty things. Kotetsu let out a groan that came from his gut, and he blocked out the world for just a moment. Maybe he actually passed out, but he’s going to call it blocking out the world instead.

The two men panicked. The one being mugged panicked because _his rescuer was injured in the process of saving him,_ and the actual mugger panicked because, _holy shit! I didn’t want to take it that far!_ The mugger ran for the hills, and so did the one who was being mugged, but he ran to go find the nearest telephone. Somebody needs to call an ambulance, and he’s the only one who’ll be able to do it!’

Meanwhile, Kotetsu kept his hands over his wound and around the knife. The weapon felt almost as if it were held over a fire before. Like one of those 1000 degrees knifes his daughter likes watching so much. He’s suddenly aware that he’ll never be able to watch those videos the same again.

He let out a cough followed by a little dribble of blood down his chin. His strength leaked out of his body at the same speed as his blood. Second by second, inch by inch, his hands fell from his wound to the ground below him. Yet despite that, he somehow managed to curl up on himself even more. He also heard rapid footsteps approaching him. He had no willpower or energy to be able to even move his eyes, so he was only aware of who it was when they spoke.

“Kotetsu!”

“Jesus!”

“Oh my gosh, okay--”

“Where is he-- holy--”

“Darling! You look awful!”

“We need to do something!”

Scratch that part about not being able to do anything, Kotetsu still managed to smile at his friends’ antics. It was always nice seeing people be frantically worried over him. He lost the smile when he was picked up, though. His wound was jostled, which made him hiss in pain.

“Woah, hey,” Antonio, of course, Antonio would be the one to pick him up. He was probably the only one with enough strength to do so, “Sorry about that. You’ll be okay, alright? There was a civilian who called an ambulance for you recently, so that should be here shortly.”

Kotetsu would love to nod, but instead, he lets out some kind of awful gurgle that makes everybody’s chest hurt. They all snapped their heads up to see Barnaby run into the alleyway, breath erratic. He was panicked like they were, but he used it to make a plan in a matter of seconds, “Bison, Origami, and Sky High: make sure the ambulance has no blockages on the way to the hospital. Dragon Kid, you’re with me in hunting down who did this. Blue Ice, make sure the witness who called the ambulance is okay. Everybody got the plan?”

It was a brief moment of silence before everyone shouted either “Right!” or “Yes Sir!”

All the while Kotetsu drifted off into darkness. Despite being in pain, despite being a little worried that he might not actually make it, Kotetsu felt safe with all of his friends there. Their presence melted any worry or anxiety he had. They all may have had a rough start, but now, their friendship was unyielding. A solid wall, ready to block any sort of attack that was made on them.

If cartoons have taught Kotetsu anything, it was that friendship always wins.

\---

Deja vu.

That’s all Kotetsu has to say at the scene before him.

He’s gotta get used to waking up in the hospital and actually having people in the room with him. Especially considering how much he _ends up_ there on a weekly basis. He supposes that’s why he’s not used to people being there: he has a lot of times where there _wasn’t_ anybody to wake up to, so it’ll be a little bit before it feels “natural”. Besides, he might as well enjoy the scenery before somebody sees him awake and makes the rest of the day nothing but questions.

In chairs were Antonio, Ivan, and Karina with Antonio in between the younger heroes. Karina and Ivan rested their heads on the bigger man’s shoulders, and Antonio simply let his fall limply forward. Kotetsu thinned his lips at the sight: Antonio hates cramps in his neck. On the floor rested Keith, Nathan, and Huang. They all had mats to rest on. Nathan was on their back, Huang on her stomach, and Keith on his side. Huang wore a pair of headphones, Keith was on the verge of drooling, and Nathan’s snores were suddenly becoming grating on Kotetsu’s ears.

“You still love us all anyway.”

Flinching at the new voice, Kotetsu slowly brought his annoyed gaze over to his partner, Barnaby, in the doorway. The blonde man was wholeheartedly smirking at Kotetsu, very aware of the fact that he read what was on the older man’s mind. 

Barnaby sat down next to his boyfriend and put one finger over his mouth quickly, “Before they wake up because I made noise, I just wanted to say one thing: we love you, idiot, _I_ do, so just suck it up and let them fuss over you for the next few days, got it?”

Kotetsu had his eyebrows raised the entire time before he lowered them when Barnaby took his finger away. Kotetsu cheekily grinned, “Yeah, alright, I’ll concede this once, _only_ if you give me a kiss, first.”

Barnaby rolled his eyes but complied anyway, “Really? That’s all I need to do? Man, I should make deals with you more often.”

Their lips touched briefly. It was simple but sweet, and when the kiss broke, they gazed into each other’s eyes before they heard a feminine voice gasp behind them. They turned around to see Karina with her hand over her mouth, followed by everyone else in the room with their own gasps and movements of shock.

While nobody literally jumped on Kotetsu like they normally do, the room still became something Kotetsu called ‘controlled chaos’. His friends were frantic with relief, and they all got their emotions out with different but similar phrases to one another.

“Kotetsu!”

“Thank God you’re okay!”

“Don’t scare us like that again, please!”

Kotetsu could only laugh and grin, proud of the circle of friends he’s been able to form.

“I’ll try my hardest not to. How can I not with such wonderful people at my side?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I. AM. PROCRASTINATING. AND. I. HATE. IT. UGH. nevertheless enjoy :)
> 
> please let me know of any really bad typos! criticism is allowed as long as you give it respectfully
> 
> If you wish to scream at me here's my [main tumblr](https://halorocks1214.tumblr.com/)
> 
> And while youre at it heres my [whump blog](https://whumpitlikeitshot.tumblr.com/)


	25. Secret Injury

Joker wasn’t even sure how the hell nobody’s noticed his condition right now, but considering how much he wants to hide it in the first place, he’s not complaining. Not one bit.

Another day, another long-ass trip to Mementos. They were in the lower levels, so they were all sure to keep their guard up. They’d done a pretty good job, all things considered. They finished their Request smoothly and were working on making the long trek back up to the top. This was always the worst part: they always wished they could find some kind of time-skip device to avoid it entirely.

But alas, they don’t have _that_ much magic. Too bad about that, because Joker could use a miracle right now. They, thankfully, never ran into any other monsters on their way back to the exit, but that wasn’t required for Joker’s gut to feel like it was tied into ten-thousand knots and being beaten to a pulp.

Their target ended up being an Ippon-Datara. Fairly rare, but not too difficult. Joker, Skull, Queen, and Noir were the ones to go in to fight. They all did exceptionally well up until the second to last attack. Joker tripped up somehow and ended up taking a huge Sledgehammer swing to the gut, throwing him a few feet back.

He laid idly staring at the ceiling while his teammates finished the job in rage. They ran over to him and Mona, who had just finished patching up the health loss (but nothing else). Skull was panting, “Holy shit, dude, are you alright?”

Joker was sitting up at this point, losing the stars in his eyes in the process. He sighed and smiled comfortingly at Skull, “Yeah, man, don’t worry. That hurt like crazy, but all’s good now.”

Joker found himself metaphorically sighing at his friends’ literal sighs of relief. Good. Now they can focus 100% on getting home instead of using some of it on him. They all started walking past him, letting him get up by himself (they hate it, but they know how much he hates being helped to stand _more…_ they’re working on it, okay?), to Mona, who was back in car form and ready to roll out.

Amid their conversation, they didn’t notice how Joker stumbled when he reached his full height, nor how he quickly brought his hand to his forehead in an attempt to quell the savage aching that was coming from that part of the body. Shaking his head (which was a bad idea), Joker semi-sprinted after his friends to join them.

Seems like Joker caught Dizziness from that attack and none of them noticed until then, or at least, only he did. Taking a deep breath, Joker was silently grateful no one noticed. Everyone’s SP was wiped-- Mona used his last little bit to heal Joker-- and Akira would hate to waste an SP recovery item for something so minor. They were already running out of those as it was.

Even if it hurt like hell, Joker could wait for the simple cure of getting out of here to rid his body of all the physical turmoil it was experiencing.

The ride in Mona was as loud as it usually was, and Akira wondered how his head didn’t explode, or how he didn’t finally lose his lunch. What was probably a couple dozen minutes or so at most felt like a couple of years to his dizzy mind. If he ever curled in on himself at some point, nobody noticed. Or nobody took the time to ask him why he was doing that.

Everybody noticed, but they just figured that Akira was recuperating from all of the Mementos trip. They were tired, and the way Joker was handling those fights back there? Hoo, the guy must’ve been _exhuasted._ They left him alone, content on waiting until they got back to the base to ask what’s up.

“Look!”

Joker wasn’t sure who said that, but he didn’t care about that detail. He was too giddy at the prospect of finally going home after what he saw that the voice pointed out.

There. The entrance/exit to Mementos. They were home free in a matter of seconds.

Fox yawned, “I believe we’re set for the night.”

Joker found it in himself to grin at Oracle’s quiet “Yippe!”

Noir found herself yawning too, “I believe you know what to do, leader.”

Joker nodded, not needing to be told twice. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and thumbed open the familiar app, but for some reason, his body wouldn’t let him finish the job. Maybe it was partially because he couldn’t see three inches in front of his face due to the blurriness. The light from the phone hurt his eyes as well, which sucked a ton.

He vaguely registered Queen’s voice asking if he was okay. Before he could snap out ‘I’m fine,’ he first had to control his swaying. If he wasn’t careful, he might fall, or even pass out-- 

“Akira?!”

_Codenames… Panther…_

Was the last thing Joker said in his mind as he did actually end up toppling over, phone falling freely out of his fingertips and crashing against the ground.

\---

He woke up in… a cuddle pile?!

Holy shit, it was a goddamn cuddle pile. Akira.exe has stopped working.

After a moment of rebooting, he used his normal-senses to get a grip on his surroundings. Laying on his chest was the smallest of the group, Futaba, snoring as loudly as possible and-- dammit, that wet spot in his shirt is drool. Peering above her head, he saw the familiar Morgana on her back, snoozing as heavily as she was. The next two he registered, Haru and Makoto, were on his left and right specifically. Haru simply laid against him, but Makoto had taken gripping his arm to an Olympic sport. The blood flow will take a while to come back, undoubtedly.

It took him a second to find his last friends, Ryuji and Yusuke. It took a second because Akira was expecting them to be on the other sides of the girls laying next to him. What he was not expecting was to have his head laying atop Yusuke’s stomach, nor did he think the circulation would be cut off by Ryuji sleeping directly on his legs. He would think it was cute if he wasn’t going to need a deep tissue massage.

Still… he felt excess liquid start to leak from his eyes and got annoyed at the fact that he couldn’t wipe them away (would it kill you to ease up, Nijima?). Before any other thought could be made, a squeaky voice cleared its throat at the top of the pile. Akira looked into the eyes of his feline friend, who was simply grinning at his master.

“I’m gonna keep this short since you’ll just hear it all again from everybody else, but: you don’t need to care for stuff like this by yourself anymore, okay? We all care for you, deeply, and I don’t know how many more cuddle piles it’s going to take for you to see that. But we’ll still cuddle away until you do, got that?”

Akira’s throat closed up with emotion. The tiniest of tear tracks trailed down his cheeks as he only nodded, afraid of what would come out if he tried speaking. Satisfied at the response, for now, Morgana also nodded his head before bringing it down to rest his chin on Futaba’s back for the few seconds he had before the chaos erupted. You didn’t think the rest of the thieves wouldn’t hear Morgana start to talk, did you?

They did, and the calm before the storm was ended when Futaba lifted her head, blinked a few times and immediately roughly yelled, “AKIRA!” right in the boy’s face. That got the other thieves to abruptly wake up, then sit up, and then do their own version of Futaba’s shout. Meanwhile, Akira just waited quietly until his neuroses could handle the excitement that was starting to form around him.

They yelled at him for being an idiot, of course. Haru, Ann, and Futaba got a little teary-eyed (though, the two latter ladies would never say they actually did) when Ryuji did in his big speech about how important their friendship was and how Akira couldn’t keep getting nearly killed. It’s not just because the Gods made it so you can’t be the only one to die, it’s because seeing you get hurt sucks a butt-ton! After painfully tugging on his ear, Makoto went to go sit next to Yusuke to listen to Ryuji. The two of them silently nodded along to the blonde boys rambling.

By the end of it, Akira’s tear tracks were a little bigger than before. Akira grinned, “Okay, guys. I’m sorry for not telling you.”

Ryuji sighed playfully, “Damn right you are.”

Everyone snorted at that, even Akira. While the spectacled boy will need the occasional reminder, he knows now that he doesn’t need to be alone anymore.

Especially not with friends as persuasive as these.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> please let me know of any glaring typos! criticism is okay as long as you give it respectfully~
> 
> If you wish to scream at me here's my [main tumblr](https://halorocks1214.tumblr.com/)
> 
> And while youre at it heres my [whump blog](https://whumpitlikeitshot.tumblr.com/)


	26. Humiliation

It’s been ingrained into his head at this point.

_“What a freak!”_

_“He must be worthless to his family!”_

_“How is he going to do anything like that?”_

_“Aw, little boy is still upset about being _quirkless?_”_

For the longest time, he just paraded it around. At first, he didn’t listen, oh how he tried, but so many people, adults and kids alike, burned the idea of quirklessness being such a horrible thing that Midoriya became actively ashamed of it. He was downright _humiliated_ over something he couldn’t control.

But it was worse because he still wanted to become a hero, right? If he just stuck to the sidelines and refused to put himself in the spotlight, maybe none of it would’ve happened.

At least that’s what he tells himself when he walks past one of his familiar bullies with red cheeks of embarrassment. He kept his vision to the floor in front of his feet and tried not to think of how much of a disappointment he was.

Nowadays, he doesn’t think about it, shockingly enough. He has a quirk! He’s in one of the top schools in the world! He has actual _friends_ now, so who cares about that stuff, right?

As he said, he doesn’t even think about those years where he was useless. He’s _different,_ he swears he’ll be better. He’s not…

Izuku pulled his head away from his pillow rapidly. Clearly, he’s not getting any sleep tonight. Standing up and shrugging off his sheets, he made his way to the kitchen in the dorms. Sato promised he would leave some of his special hot pockets for everyone in the fridge, and Midoriya has nothing else better to do if he’s not going to go sleepy-time.

After a few minutes of being in the microwave, the machine beeped and Izuku brought his food out of the box. He hissed and trembled at the heat burning his fingertips and blew on the hot pocket until it stopped hurting. Placing the food item in between a napkin in between his fingers, Midoriya sauntered over to the counter to start slowly munching.

After a couple of minutes, Izuku heard footsteps approach him from behind. He jumped out of his seat, but thankfully, he held back the urge to chuck his half-eaten hot pocket at the intruder, especially considering who it ended up being. That doesn’t change the fact that Midoriya had to bring the hot pocket down from above his head, which was, as he said, on the verged of being thrown like a baseball.

Kirishima, who heard the microwave start, got up concerned for whoever it was. Usually, _he’s_ the only one who does shit like that-- use the microwave for midnight snacks. Nobody else does unless they’re experiencing some kind of inner turmoil and don’t want to think about it. Kirishima’s hands were in front of himself defensively until Izuku realized who was in the room and brought down his ‘weapon’ of choice.

The two boys stood there staring at one another before Kirishima broke the silence, “Sorry, dude, I was just worried. I heard someone in the kitchen and was wondering what it was all about.”

Midoriya blinked a few times before simply going, “Oh, okay. That makes sense.” The boy sat back down and began to munch on his hot pocket again, leaving Kirishima to sigh in relief. After that, Kirishima yawned and stretched as he walked over to sit at the counter, an empty stool in between Midoriya and him. Kirishima pulled out his phone and Midoriya continued eating.

They sat there for a while with nothing but empty air sitting between them.

Kirishima, who hated silence, started small talk, “Hey, Midoriya?

The boy in question finished his food and was wiping his mouth, “Y-Yes?”

Kirishima didn’t even look up, “It’s just… I’m curious, weren’t you quirkless before this? I was just wondering how--”

Before Kirishima could blink, Midoriya stood up rapidly and gripped the edge of the counter defensively, “That doesn’t matter! You’ve seen how strong I am, right? How much I’ve changed?!”

He was feeling that familiar feeling: _humiliation._

Kirishima, with wide eyes and sympathy, backed off a little, “Woah, hey, sorry, dude. I didn’t realize it was a difficult subject.” He then scoffed at himself in disappointment, barely whispering out the next sentence, “Wouldn’t be the first time I made a situation awkward…”

That’s when Midoriya realized what kind of scene he caused, even if it was only in front of one person. “S-Sorry!” he said louder than intended. Without looking at his spiky-haired friend, Midoriya did a heel turn and ran back to his room, ignoring Kirishima’s concerned shouts.

Leaping onto his bed and shoving his head underneath the pillow, Midoriya groaned as much as he could. Just because he was muffled by cotton doesn’t mean the people who were his neighbors wouldn’t hear his distress. As you could see, people seeing his distress leads to stuff like _this._

_Sorry, mom, but this situation deserves a big ‘oh fuck’ from me._

\---

Training today _sucked._

At least it didn’t get interrupted by a villain attack for once, so Izuku would take it with a grain of salt. It was one-on-one training with Aizawa, and due to his luck, Midoriya just so happened to be the last one his teacher picked. He sat waiting for a good hour or so, watching everybody else trickle away to go do less taxing activities for the rest of the day, and then had to go endure his own fresh brand of torture.

He loves Aizawa, he does, but he’d be lying if he said the training wasn’t difficult. His mom didn’t raise a liar.

Somewhat limping back to the dorms, the hair on the back of Izuku’s neck started to stand. It wasn’t an ‘imminent threat’ warning, it was a ‘hey, something’s kind of different but we can’t tell what it is’. Gulping down his fear, Midoriya pulled up his hands and loosely held them in fists as he walked to the entrance of the building even more slowly.

The door was partially open, which could mean anything, really. If Izuku had a nickel every time one of his classmates left a door open. But Mic (and everybody else for that matter) stressed basic safety practices, so what in the world could this mean?

Taking a deep breath to prepare himself, Midoriya slowly opened the door…

And nearly pooped his pants when the lights suddenly came on and confetti filled the room at speeds Iida would be jealous at (and Iida doesn’t get jealous easily).

Falling over onto his butt, Midoriya blinked a few times before rapidly looking up to see quite literally _all_ of his class standing in various places around the room with their hands above their heads. Their smiles were ear-to-ear, and Izuku thought about every possible bad reason they could be doing this. I mean, even _Bakugou_ was here, and while he wasn’t smiling or had his hands above his head, he was still _here._

That’s a lot more than Midoriya would expect out of the guy.

Ochako stepped in front of him and lent her hand. Blushing profusely, Izuku took it and stood back up. Once he was standing, she didn’t let go. Instead, she brought him over the kitchen where a hastily made cake was sitting on the counter. She only let go when he sat down at a stool, and part of him wishes she didn’t. Her touch was the only thing grounding him in this crazy experience.

What brought him back to reality was a place with a slice of cake being placed directly in front of him. He took a few shaky deep breaths and carefully looked up at everyone, “But it’s not my birthday…?”

Everyone else looked around at each other at a loss for words. The one to eventually speak was Todoroki, because of course, “We know it’s not. We just wanted to remind you that you’re our friend first and foremost, no matter where we all came from or how we grew up.”

Kaminari came forward and wrapped an arm around Bakugou, “Yeah, what he said! You’re Midoriya Izuku, our buddy and pal, nothing will change that!”

Bakugou mutely and tightly nodded. He was more annoyed at the invasion of personal space more than anything.

Midoriya rapidly looked around at everyone again, seemingly trying to find the catch to this situation. Before his friends could comfort him more, the green-haired boy did the unexpected.

Midoriya laughed a few times quietly, quickly wiping away the few tears that leaked out. 

He then grabbed and gripped the fork left for him as he meticulously took a piece from the slice of cake in front of him. With a shaky hand, he ate it and his eyes widened. Man, this was actually really good? Midoriya grinned around the fork in his mouth, “The frosted art on top might not be the prettiest, but the taste sure made up for it. Wow.”

Everyone sighed. Seems like this plan went off without a hitch. Meanwhile, Tsu spoke in her apathetic tone, “Sato made it, obviously.”

Midoriya laughed. Of course, he did. Come to think of it, wasn’t Sato the first one to be trained? Midoriya then quickly sputtered when Kirishima took the liberty of taking the rest of his slice and shoving it in his face. Kirishima barked a laugh, “You got a taste, now I get to do what I want!”

The slice slowly dripped off Midoriya’s face, leaving a nice trail of frosting and crumbs. Izuku’s smirk became mischevious, “Hey! That’s not fair if I can’t do it! This party is for me after all!”

Mina stood up with a chuckle, frosting clenched in one of her fists, “Food fight!”

And fight they did. The dorms quickly became a mess of frosting, crumbs, chips, and certain pillows and curtains will forever be stained with soda from this point on. Later, when the teachers come to give them their evaluation, they would widen their eyes at the mess. It spoke miles of how bad it was originally when they watched all the students freeze in the middle of their attempt to hide it.

The teachers sighed and walked away. This will be dealt with at another time.

Back in the action, Midoriya laughed and cried and chucked a nice handful of chips at Bakugou. Hah! He got his face! Midoriya was then shocked by Iida, who snuck under his legs and hoisted the smaller boy onto his shoulders. With this knowledge, Midoriya felt even more adrenaline fill his veins as all of his other friends yelled out, “Hey, that’s not fair!”

Neither Midoriya nor Iida listened to their pleas.

When all the food was wasted, the kids were all tuckered out. They took a minute to sit and rest before the race to clean up commenced. Meanwhile, Midoriya, who was on the couch, watched the unmoving ceiling with a grin. Midoriya didn’t feel guilt, shame, or embarrassment at all. He was filled with a completely different feeling that only happens to him once in a blue moon.

For the first time in a while, Midoriya felt _proud_ of himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yessiree im subtly implying that aizawa was in on the idea. he was not down for the foodfight that happened because of it, however
> 
> please let me know of any typos that interrupt your reading! criticism is allowed as long as youre nice about it~
> 
> If you wish to scream at me here's my [main tumblr](https://halorocks1214.tumblr.com/)
> 
> And while youre at it heres my [whump blog](https://whumpitlikeitshot.tumblr.com/)


	27. Abandoned

Why did it have to hit him at _school_ of all places?

It always comes out of nowhere: the harsh reality Akira lives.

_He’s always been utterly alone. He was a silent outcast at his original school; nobody believed him during his trial; his parents were so embarrassed about the child that lived in their house that they sent him away without a second thought; Sojiro, who, despite being doting nowadays, treated him harshly, like he was babysitting the neighbors dog; the new school, who finally paid attention to him in all the worst ways possible; all the adults that should’ve _cared--__

_Every time his life gets even a smidge difficult, people leave him, _abandon_ him--_

Akira felt something akin to a panic attack coming on. Dammit, can’t he at least get to another secluded area before--

“Aww, look, the tiny transfer is getting weepy-eyed!”

Scratch that, crying can happen later. 

Akira’s forlorn look dropped off his face the second he turned around to look at his assailants. They were some no-name students Akira didn’t recognize. Well, he kinda did. Makoto complained about a couple of low-lives constantly needing to go to detention for various reasons.

Seems like they want to take out their frustrations on poor old Akira, too bad that they’re going to regret it, “What do you require, gentlemen?”

His voice was crisp and cool, much darker than he normally lets his voice sound when talking to anybody other than his friends. The B-Grade bullies didn’t care, “Your delinquent ass should understand the need to get a good punch out. You’re also pretty smart, you should know no one will care if the thing that gets punched is _you._”

The last half of the sentence was drowned out by the blood rushing to Akira’s ears. _No one will care_ stopped any chance of him fighting back. If he wasn’t so lost in thought about those four words before they were spoken he would’ve probably rolled them off his shoulders. But alas, his mental state wasn’t very good (has it ever been?), and even people such as the jerks in front of him could bring Akira to his knees at that moment.

Besides, if he just lets this happen with no major drama, it’ll die off quietly and he won’t have to worry about any sort of fallout. He’s learned that fighting back just creates more problems in the end, doesn’t it?

With a loud crack, Akira was brought back to reality at the feeling of a fist connecting with his jaw. First, his head flew back, followed by his glasses flying off his face, and then finished with his butt hitting the ground with a resounding thump. Rubbing his face, Akira took a second to glare at his enemies, who thought it was cute as most. They stepped past the incapacitated boy still on the ground in the middle of their small talk. Akira barely hid his flinch when he heard the dramatic shatter of his spectacles when the bully stepped on them, leaving it just as broken as he was.

With a shaky sigh, Akira stood up, picked up his now-broken glasses and left the school, feeling something he would call ‘hollow’.

He got to the cafe, bruised faced and all. Sojiro was at the counter, obviously, but he wasn’t expecting the rest of his friends to be there as well. Maybe Futaba and Morgana, but definitely not the rest of them. All at the same time no less. He was kind of out of it when he heard a sudden, feminine gasp come from the bar. He looked up to see varying levels of horrified on each of his friends’ faces.

Ah, he must look like shit, “Hey, guys, don’t worry, this isn’t--”

“Like the hell it is!” Ryuji stood up, stopping that train of thought instantaneously.

Makoto stood up and walked over to Akira, examining his face with her typical, serious gaze, “Who did this, Akira? Don’t lie, we know when you’re lying.”

He was under many gazes very suddenly, each one with a different type of ferocity. He felt himself shrinking and shrinking further and further, sheepishly thinning his lips under the pressure, “I just need some painkillers and an icepack, it’s okay--”

“I thought Ryuji just told you it wasn’t?” Yusuke probed innocently, a hint of sarcasm behind his smooth, silky voice.

Throughout that conversation, Sojiro had walked out and closed the cafe momentarily. He kind of walked out the minute he saw Akira’s face. Poor kid just can’t catch a break for once in his life. None of them can. So that’s why he’s outside just waiting: these kids need all the silence they can get nowadays. He simply stood, cigarette getting smaller and smaller in his hand.

Back in the cafe, Haru’s eyes slowly and slowly widened in panic, “Oh no… Akira, don’t tell me your being _blackmailed,_ are you?”

Oh schnitzel, of course, they would think that. Quickly, do something before Ryuji breaks another vase! “Woah, hey! I swear to God it’s not like _that,_ I just had a minor scuffle on the way home, that’s all.”

“Then why?” Morgana questioned quietly, “Why won’t you tell us? Are you afraid we won’t help?”

Ryuji stepped forward and placed his hand on his friend’s shoulder, “We’re here for you, okay? Do you remember what we talked about at all?”

Once again, Akira vaguely registered the second half of the conversation. _We’re here for you._ Four completely different words with a completely different meaning. They’re words Akira’s wanted to hear so damn long, and yet now that he can, on a daily basis too, he _runs_ from it.

Maybe… maybe he won’t this time. Maybe he can get his happily ever after for this one moment. Akira sighed in relief, but mostly exhaustion, “It was… it was that one kid and his posse. The one who can’t seem to be outside of the detention room for more than 5 minutes straight.”

Makoto downright growled at the news, “Ugh, _Kusumoto._”

Ann’s eyes widened, “That no-name? He can pack a hit like that?”

Ryuji’s teeth clicked together harshly. He hissed under his breath, “Bastard…”

It was at this moment that Sojiro decided to come back inside, gently interrupting the tender scene, much to his chagrin, “Alright, a couple of customers are lining up outside to come in. I hate to break this up, I really do, but can you finish this upstairs?”

The kids all had wide eyes before they either nodded or made a noise in understanding. Right as they started upstairs, Sojiro cleared his throat. It took Akira a second to realize it was because the older man was trying to catch _his_ attention. Akira turned around to look into the eyes of his guardian, which were nothing but warm and comforting, “I’ll see if I can order a replacement for those glasses of yours. Do you remember your prescription?”

Akira felt a wide variety of emotions fill his chest before he simply nodded and followed his _family_ upstairs.

After a flurry of chaos, the only kids left in the room were Akira and Futaba. Morgana was snoozing over on the cushion on the bench. The rest of the thieves went out to get the necessary materials to make Kusumoto’s life a living hell.

He clearly wasn’t changing any time soon. Maybe his heart needs a little help in that regard?

Akira leaned back, enjoying the painkillers. Right next to him was Futaba, snuggling a little closer than she normally does, still clicking away on her laptop. Akira raised an eyebrow, “Hey, you didn’t seem in a hurry to get the truth out of me. Why?”

She didn’t even look away from her screen, “I would’ve just looked up the security cams, you know. It’s how we’re going to get Kusumoto suspended for the umpteenth time now after we do you know what.”

Akira took a second to register her worlds before letting out a hearty laugh.

Yeah, that’s Futaba for you.

Come to think of it, that’s _all_ of his friends now. And he wouldn’t have it any other way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> we're nearing the end buckaroos. what another exciting month
> 
> please let me know of any glaring typos! im okay with criticism as long as you give it respectfully~
> 
> If you wish to scream at me here's my [main tumblr](https://halorocks1214.tumblr.com/)
> 
> And while youre at it heres my [whump blog](https://whumpitlikeitshot.tumblr.com/)


	28. Ransom

Part of the job was staying cool and collected. If the Pros started to panic, then the civilians would panic even more, and lord knows _none_ of them want to deal with a distraught civilian, for more reason than one.

Toshinori snorted at the sudden memory that came up: the way that lady tugged on Kayama’s hair when the hero had to carry the lady out of the collapsing building. The annoyed twitches on the female Pro’s face were quite funny in hindsight.

The grin off his face fell when he remembered what brought up the topic of staying calm in awful situations. Feeling his body start to tremble again, he gripped the threatening note in his hands a little more as he read it once again.

**We have your kid. Pay one million, or you won’t have a successor anymore.**

Toshinori brought a hand over his mouth to prevent any nausea. _Dear god…_

Unless the League had some weird change of heart, or are just _that_ desperate to gain extra funds, this couldn’t be them. There was another, completely different, third party who _knew_ about Toshinori, _knew_ about Midoriya and _knew_ about how One for All worked. Thank God they only wanted monetary gain. People have gone for worse outcomes with even less information about the elusive #1 Hero.

At this point, Toshinori was sitting down on his couch. He was afraid of what would happen if he continued to stand. Leaning forward and placing his face in his hands, he was hit with a wave or regrets and misery. He put Izuku in this position-- put the boy in _danger,_ and this is what it brought. All Might wants nothing more than for the boy to be safe, far away from nasty people as much as possible.

Another selfish part hoped it would be here, but he conceded that _anywhere_ safe would be better than where the boy was now. _Gosh,_ what could they be doing to him? What _have_ they done to them? They better hope it wasn’t too much, or they’ll have much more than All Might to worry about.

Heat filled a small area in front of him. Toshinori chuckled. He’s gone insane, finally, imagining things that weren’t there. Why he even found himself start to imagine Midoriya was that new temperature. It was absurd, the lengths his mind would go to make him feel better.

“H-Hey, uh, All Might?”

He could hear his voice as if the boy were in this very room!

“You, uh, you okay?”

His imagination was always a vivid thing. Now the heat in front of him actually _sounded_ like the boy too-- Oh.

Rapidly looking up, Toshinori gazed into the eyes of his protege. A smear of blood dripped from his nose, signifying that the kid wiped whatever trail was there originally. He had a dark bruise slowly forming on his left jawbone, and Toshinori was pretty sure that wasn’t the only mark the boy was going to have. Despite it, Izuku stared at his mentor with such beady eyes that you would think he was a puppy in human form.

Midoriya either ignored it or was oblivious to Toshinori’s internal struggle between relief and anger. He was happy that Midoriya was safe, of course, but he was angry at the men who caused this in the first place. How dare they? How _dare_ they?! Izuku was merely a _child,_ an extremely powerful one, but still one nonetheless.

Midoriya, who Toshinori decided was oblivious, tried explaining his actions, “Oh, did you get the note? They said they would send a note. It’s why I’m here first before anywhere else. Sorry about that, I tried breaking out before sent the message, but as you can see,” Izuku gestured to his face, “The first attempt didn’t work out too well. The second attempt happened when another guy brought in food. They were arguing about how the orders were wrong, so that allowed me to break free and--”

As the boy continued, Toshinori simply watched in awe. _Izuku_ broke free? By _himself?_ Weeks ago, Toshinori witnessed the aftermath of the boy bursting out into tears when he got his leg trapped in his bike lock and lost the key to unlock it. He was in shambles by the time Toshinori was able to come help him get free.

Clearly, the kid knew his stuff when it really mattered, which is a prime example of why he made such a perfect hero, let alone successor. Toshinori felt pride swelling in his chest, circumventing the anger for a brief moment. He was still angry at the people who kidnapped Midoriya, but from how it sounded, he should probably pity them instead.

Interrupting Midoriya’s rambling, Toshinori leaned forward and yanked Midoriya into a hug, burying his face into the younger man’s shoulder. Inhaling the scent of Midoriya _being_ there in his arms, Toshinori found it in himself to relax his shoulders. He can waste his anger on the assailants later when they find them. They _will_ find them, after all. 

Midoriya blinked a few times before suddenly realizing what happened. “O-Oh… Okay, All Might…” he carefully draped his smaller arms around the man, still unsure about what is happening. Whatever it is, it seems to be calming his mentor down, so Midoriya can roll with it.

In a couple of minutes, they’ll have to break off and go to the other Pros to report this. They’ll have to question Midoriya extensively to find who was behind this. Then they’ll go find _those_ people and question them. _Extensively._ And then Toshinori would go to Recovery Girl, get chastised for letting it happen (but would stay with the boy regardless), then bring the boy home to his anxious mother, who wondered why he didn’t come home at the time he said he would.

But for right now, it was quiet and safe. Something that would happen less and less as the boy grew up and gained more responsibilities. Responsibilities Toshinori himself put on the boy. Midoriya has been handling them better than anyone ever expected, but it still hurt to think about all the pain he’s indirectly caused the boy, both in the past and the present, possibly the future as well.

Oh well, that didn’t matter. Right now, it was _quiet_ and _safe._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> last bnha chap and only four more chaps in total to go!
> 
> please let me know of any glaring typos! criticism is allowed as long as you give it respectfully~
> 
> If you wish to scream at me here's my [main tumblr](https://halorocks1214.tumblr.com/)
> 
> And while youre at it heres my [whump blog](https://whumpitlikeitshot.tumblr.com/)


	29. Beaten

First, it was Shido, then it was Futaba’s Uncle, and then it was just straight _bullshit._

All Akira was doing was getting more milk. That was all. Next thing he knew, he was just past the entrance to an alleyway when he heard ungodly _shrieking_ coming from inside. Without thinking twice, he came back to the alley, looked inside to see a lady being cornered by a dude and felt some kind of emotion between rage and panic. He then set the milk jug he bought down gently-- Sojiro had been complaining about the lack of milk for a good week, Akira’s not going to listen to his guardian’s frustrations about the lack of dairy in the cafe anymore-- and _booked_ it toward the assailant.

Part of his mind was screaming _no, you idiot! Do you not remember how you ended up here last time?!_ But the other part was screaming _you can stop this! You’re a hero of the people, both inside the costume and out!_ Before he could blink again, his fist clenched and he threw it-- _chucked_ it-- at the man. With a loud _crack,_ it connected, practically throwing the guy a few feet back. The man stumbled for a couple of seconds before regaining his stance, dazed because _what the fuck?_

Then, the bad dude rubbed the side of his face before looking directly at Akira and glaring like the boy had murdered orphaned puppies in front of him.

“Yu practiclly brok my jaw… I cn sue yu fr this!”

Akira’s mind froze.

_Damn brat, I’ll sue!_

Fuck.

His chest tightened, and he wanted nothing more than to curl in on himself and pass out. His breath was suddenly sporadic, and black edges started forming in his vision. The only thing he could see in his crazed state was that the lady had fled at some point between Akira’s punch and however long Akira has been freaking out. Good. Even if she doesn’t call the cops, he was able to save for from some kind of unspeakable act, and that was good enough for him.

Wait, shit, at some point he fell on his ass because there was pressure on his bottom that he doesn’t remember being there. Tears leaked down his eyes and-- wait were those footsteps coming toward him--

A foot was jammed into his gut and he made a noise between a mixture of a grunt and a wheeze. Futaba would say he sounded like a dying Morgana. He fell over onto his side, lack of oxygen due to the fact he was deep in a bad panic attack and the foot hit his diaphragm directly. Before he could curl up protectively, the foot struck the same spot again, nearly making the boy throw up. There, at least he wrapped his left arm around his stomach. If he gets kicked again, it’ll just be his left arm. 

While what was attacked _was_ an arm, it wasn’t the left one. It was his right that was conveniently laid out flat in front of Akira, open to any would-be attacker. The attacker was the guy Akira just ruthless decked, just in case you forgot. The attacker saw the free arm and stomped right on Akira’s hand and wrist. What came from the boy was purely a yelp of pain.

For the next few seconds or minutes or-- fuck, maybe even hours-- Akira just laid on his side in a blur. His eyes were becoming glassy and he was losing his grip on reality. It was his body’s defense when dealing with a traumatic experience; proof being _everything_ that happened with that bald fuck. Akira was content with laying there until morning, but a (gentle?) hand touched his shoulder and Akira would have literally jumped if he weren’t on the ground.

The next best option was sitting up and shoving his back up against the brick wall which was surprisingly closer than he remembered. His breath picked up speed once more, and before any attack could be made, he curled around his gut again, but he made sure to stay careful with his damaged right arm. The tears were waterfalls down his cheeks now, and the word stopped when his body gained enough clarity to see who was talking to him.

“Hey, kid, it’s me. Can you breathe with me? Count from ten, that’s it…”

Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck. It was _Sojiro,_ which means he saw even just a little bit of what went down. Means he probably dealt with the guy in some way shape or form. Akira vaguely registered the white container dangling from Sojiro’s hand, but he wasn’t concerned about that. He was concerned about Sojiro’s safety.

Taking in one big gulp of air, Akira looked up into the man’s eyes, “The g-guy, wha--”

Sojiro calmly squeezed his kid’s shoulder again, grounding him, “Don’t worry, I took one step into the alleyway and the guy booked it. Once I get home, I’ll call the cops just to be safe. I don’t know how much they’ll look into it, but it doesn’t hurt to try.”

Akira got the signal: _don’t worry about it, Akira. It’s okay, I promise._ The boy slowly nodded his head and started focusing on calming down. First, his breathing, then his tears. All the while Sojiro just knelt next to him, keeping his hand firm on his shoulder. After a couple of seconds, Akira finally recognized what Sojiro was holding.

It was the milk Akira bought and set down before all of this went down.

Blinking the last tears out of his eyes and taking a shaky deep breath, Akira was still able to pull out his typical, cheeky grin, “I g-got your milk in th-the end. Don’t a-ask me for an-anything ever ag-again.”

After just one second, Sojiro rolled his eyes and grinned himself, “We’ll see. I appear to be running out of dish soap. Don’t worry, though, you’re artist friend told me he’d bring some of his for me to sample some point this week.”

Akira’s grin got wider. Seeing the cue, Sojiro stood up and held out his hand. Akira took a moment, but he eventually grabbed it and shakily stood up. He stumbled a little, but with some support from Sojiro, he was back on his own two legs. For the first half of the walk, neither person spoke. Right before they made the last turn on the route home, Sojiro spoke up quietly, “Once we get inside, I’ll treat your injuries. Do you think he broke it?”

Akira had to remember that he was in a position for his right arm to be broken. Flexing it carefully, it creaked and it ached, but it wasn’t any kind of pain that would signify that anything broke. Satisfied, Akira shook his head, “No, probably a sprain at worst. I’ll see how it feels in the morning.”

Sojiro simply nodded, “Alright, sounds good.”

They got to the cafe in silence. Akira sat at the counter as Sojiro put the milk away and got the first aid kit. A few minutes later, Akira’s stomach and wrist were treated with the proper supplies. Sojiro closed the kit, “Okay, now it’s time to head to my place.”

Akira blinked. Then, he felt panic coming on again, “W-Wait, what? Sojiro, I-- jeez, thanks for the offer, but you’ve already--”

“‘Done enough for me’?” Sojiro cheekily interrupted, the smile on his face showing that his sarcasm was in full force, “If this were the first two months you were here, maybe I would’ve said that. But it’s not the first two months, and you need some help realizing you deserve to belong somewhere. You won’t tonight, but if you come with me, it’ll help you realize it one day.”

Akira simply sat and stared at Sojiro as the older man spoke. Once he finished, Akira looked down at the counter, emotions rushing around in his head as fast as the blood was in his ears. Taking a deep breath, Akira looked back up and stared at his guardian directly in the eyes, smile small enough that only Sojiro could see if he looked hard enough (which is what he was probably already doing).

“Okay. Thanks… Dad”

Akira never mentioned the cause of Sojiro’s giddy look to any of his friends the next day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i didnt look over this one as well as i normally do, so, like always:
> 
> please let me know of any glaring typos! criticism is fine as long as you give it respectfully~
> 
> If you wish to scream at me here's my [main tumblr](https://halorocks1214.tumblr.com/)
> 
> And while youre at it heres my [whump blog](https://whumpitlikeitshot.tumblr.com/)


	30. Numb

“Timmy, you were hit right in the face with that stuff!”

“Boy am I glad to see you have eyes, Dick.”

“While I appreciate the sarcasm, I do, Dickie’s got a point. You really don’t feel anything different?”

“Well, actually, this conversation is making me pretty tired, so if we could wrap this up that would be great.”

“_Tt,_ clearly, Drake is oblivious once again. What else is new?”

“Alright, listen here you--” 

Bruce felt his headache worsening, “_Guys._”

That was the bat-tone. It wasn’t really snappish, but it was firm, and every Robin ever has had it ingrained in their brains to listen to it. The four boys shut up instantly and all slowly turned their heads to stare at Bruce. Each gaze had the same feeling of ‘I swear I didn’t do it!’

Bruce sighed and leaned back in his chair, “I see that this is going nowhere. Tim, I believe that you don’t feel anything from Ivy’s gas, but your brothers are worried because of that specific reason. This certainly wouldn’t be the first time a villain’s scheme had a delayed reaction on purpose. I know you’ll hate it, but if you could stay the night at the manor, that’d be great. We can monitor you and see if anything does happen, and even if nothing occurs, the antidote from the sample you gave me should be done. As soon as it’s administered, you can flee back to where you live, okay?”

Tim apathetically stared at Batman as the man explained his plan. Once he was done, Tim just nodded his head, “As long as Alfred makes breakfast the way I like.” Tim started to take off his costume. The others were already out of theirs, it was his turn now.

Bruce turned back to type on his computer, “Noted. Now, the rest of you,” the other members of the family snapped their heads up, “Try not to smother Tim too much. The last thing I need is for him running off in the night because you guys couldn’t stop asking if he needed anything.”

Tim rolled his eyes as everyone started squawking at each other. It’ll only be for a couple of hours at least. The clip on his cape was undone, and as he loosened the fabric, he was keenly aware of Damian’s squawking suddenly _stopping,_ followed by his frantic (wait, frantic?) words.

“Drake! You’re _bleeding!_”

Freezing right as his cape fell off his shoulders, Tim widened his eyes and froze. Judging by Dick’s gasp, Bruce’s sudden lack of computer noises, and the squeak from the heel turn Jason made, Tim was, in fact, most likely bleeding. But that’s why he froze. He literally can’t feel any kind of pain whatsoever. None, zip, nadda: he knows when he needs to hide injuries, and this was the first time Tim genuinely didn’t realize he _had_ one to begin with.

Turning around slowly, Tim looked at all the bats in the eyes, “Well, I don’t know why you all are panicking like you are. I know I lie about this stuff a lot, I do, but I swear on my coffee that I just _don’t_ feel anything, so I don’t think it’s _that_ bad--”

While Tim was talking, Dick slowly approached him. When Dick got right next to the boy, he gently but firmly placed a hand on his shoulder and grabbed his attention. Tim snapped his head up to look at Dick. With no words, Dick simply pushed Tim lightly over to the mirrors they use for multiple reasons. Dick was vaguely aware of the glare Tim was giving him, but both men knew that the glare was superficial. Tim’s confusion about why they’re all freaking out is enough to let Dick move him further into the cave.

Once they were in front of the mirrors, Tim moved around and examined himself. Once he saw his back, he was genuinely shocked at the sight. It was _covered_ in blood from top to bottom, the red parts of his suit even redder because of the lackluster dye job. His armor had quite the generous rip, and his back had a gash that easily matched the rip’s size.

Taking a deep breath, Tim recalled the events that transpired before this, “I remember. Ivy got the drop on me for a second and whipped me hard, but I felt _nothing._ Seriously, if I knew about this I would’ve beelined it out of here the second I dropped off my report, you _know_ that.” Tim was sitting again (dammit) because Dick managed to get him in a position so the older brother could treat the wound before it got worse.

Jason _finally_ got his words in. He walked over to where Dickiebird and Timmy were sitting to look at the damage closer, “Well, that sure as hell isn’t ‘nothing’. How the hell could you not feel anything with _that?_”

Damian, who had his hand on his chin the entire time, came to a sudden conclusion, “Ivy… Father--”

“Already on it,” Bruce finished for his youngest son. He stood up and walked over to his three eldest and started stripping out of his armor as well, “The antidote isn’t finished, but the analysis is pretty close. Looks like it was simple numbing gas. It basically shut down your body’s reactions-- both physical and emotional-- to exterior stimuli. Hence why you’ve probably been nothing but tired. You can’t feel mad or sad or pain, make sense?”

Just nodding his head once again, Tim understood, “Ah, makes sense. I guess that’s why I didn’t feel any differe-- ah! That stings, Dick!”

Tim was blatantly lying there: he didn’t feel a damn thing. He wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible. It wasn't the _smartest_ idea he's had, but he was starting to panic ever so slightly at the prospect of a _feels fest_ beginning, could you blame him? The rest of his family would’ve picked up on that little fact, and they probably did, the rag-tag bunch of detectives they all were, but they’re not going to push anything, at least for the rest of the night.

Dick, however, was lost in his thoughts because of what Bruce said, and wouldn’t fully realize that he was played until he went to bed, “Oh, sorry Tim. There, you can go upstairs.”

Okay… Dick sounded really resigned there, but Tim couldn’t bring his mind to care. Ivy’s gas, remember? With a plop, Tim slinked off the table he was on and went upstairs. For the next few hours, Tim would do nonchalant things in his makeshift room. Work on papers, read up on the latest cases, he even tried getting sleep at one point. But alas, just like many other nights, sleep eluded him, and all that left him to do was eat.

You weren’t a part of this family unless you had weird nighttime snacking habits.

However, right before he stepped inside, he heard four voices whisper arguing. Great, what else is new? Tim leaned against the wall and listened closely. He wanted to see if he could sneak out unscathed or if he should just call it a night lest he wanted a migraine on top of all of this.

“--d you not see anything wrong with that?”

“I did, Dick, but staying up all night racked with guilt won’t help the situation.”

“You’re one to talk, daddybats.”

“My neuroses aside, Jason, Dick is right in one regard.”

“What would that be, Father?”

“If Tim is so used to not being able to emotionally respond to his surroundings that the effects of a literal numbing toxin feel no different, then there’s a bigger problem at hand then Tim potentially keeling over from that toxin.”

“While that last part might be a stretch, the rest of it is true. I always forget how neglectful Timmy is towards himself until shit like this happens… not that I’ve been of much help in that regard.”

“Dick, that’s not--”

“Woah, take it easy Big Bird--”

“Grayson! You--”

Well, whatever happened next, Tim didn’t care. He was already quietly booking it down the halls back to his room. When he got inside, he shut the door a little harder than he wanted and stomped over to his bed. Laying down on his stomach (he would love to lay on his back, but, you know), he shoved his face in his hands and groaned.

Fuck… he should’ve dipped out the minute he gave Batman the report like he wanted.

\---

In the morning, Tim was slightly shocked to see that _Jason_ was the one who was chosen to administer the antidote. He was sitting on the same examination table Tim was on the last night, swinging his legs like a toddler. He was too calm and giddy about this, but, again, Tim couldn’t react to it even if he wanted to.

Along with the cure, Jason had pain medication waiting. Good thing too, the antidote worked fast, and Tim could feel his back slowly get more and more sore and achy, followed by a burning sensation. When the pain medication was administered, Tim let out a short goodbye and walked over to his vehicle. Right before he could zoom off, he had to look back up at Jason and _what?_ “Wait, you’re _staying_ at the _manor?_”

Jason slowly turned around, eyebrow raised in confusion, “Uh, why not? It’s movie day, and they said I can pick the first one.” Jason turned around and waved goodbye as he walked up the stairs, “Feel free to join, Babybird! Otherwise, safe trip home!”

Tim was so lost the only way he could react was running at Jason, trying to get the older man’s attention, “Jay? Jay?! Get back here! I thought you wanted to avoid this place like the plague! _Jay!_”

Tim eventually caught up to Jason, and when he did, he had to blink. Jason was in a room with Bruce, Dick, and Damian. The latter three were on the couch talking about something (probably the movie) while Jason walked in like he was hot shit. He was probably grinning too, “Hey guys, look what I dragged in!”

The three family members on the couch shut up and looked at Tim. They all felt flutters of relief when they saw the _panicked_ look on Tim’s face, which meant the antidote worked. Dick shot out of the couch and wrapped his arms around his younger sibling, “Timmy! I’m glad to see you reacting again!”

Blinking again, Tim tried to shrug off the hug (but failed), “Yeah, me too?”

Damian had to interrupt, “Drake! Tell Father that his need for every movie night to involve a Disney flick is absurd! There are plenty of other candidates out there to waste the time!”

Jason whistled as he leaned over the couch, “Wow, sounds like a rough argument, Baby Bat. You should help them sort it out, don’t cha think, Timbo?”

Still trying to figure out if he was insane or not, Tim let himself be led over to the couch by Dick. Dick plopped Tim down right next to Damian and then sat on the other side of Tim himself, grinning at the confused look on Tim’s face. Tim was thinking up quite a storm. Letting out a sigh, Tim spoke, “I mean… the majority of Disney movies are pretty good, right? I get wanting to see one periodically, especially in lives like ours.”

The two oldest brothers started laughing deeply as the youngest squawked in disbelief. Bruce just hummed, “I knew you would be on my side, Tim. Thank you.”

Tim tried hiding his blush, “Yeah, no problem.”

Jason wiped the tears out of his eyes, “Alrighty, now that that’s out of the way, I get the first pick and I want to watch _How to Train Your Dragon_!”

The next couple of hours consisted of many popcorn popping, lots of arguments about what made a movie a ‘movie’, oh, and movie watching, or course. It _was_ a movie day. It would be stupid to waste _all_ the time arguing about things and in the end _not_ watch anything.

Later that night in his Perch, Tim was still so caught off guard that all he could do was watch funny videos as he sat lost in his thoughts.

That was… something his family pulled off. It was so elaborate that Tim found himself grinning at his family’s antics. Or maybe he just snorted at what happened on his screen. Yeah, that was it…

Maybe he could join them for another movie day. He wasn’t able to finish his argument with Jason, after all.

Tim hated leaving debates open-ended like that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this one was kind of rushed so im a little sflkjcskaldldsf but nonetheless if you enjoy it thank you!
> 
> please let me know of any glaring typos <3 im okay with criticism as long as you give it nicely~
> 
> If you wish to scream at me here's my [main tumblr](https://halorocks1214.tumblr.com/)
> 
> And while youre at it heres my [whump blog](https://whumpitlikeitshot.tumblr.com/)


	31. Recovery

It was a long road they took to get here.

Despite being brothers-- or not really? Fuck, they haven’t worked that out just yet-- their problems range far and wide in comparison to one another. That’s not to say one’s had it worse or one of them needs to suck it up, hell, Rose finds them calling it ‘problems’ will slowly lead them to believe that they’re overreacting about their trauma or whatever she said, it’s just that they have such similar problems despite going through the exact opposite shit. They shared the same insecurities, they came down the same way from nightmares, etc. etc..

Dirk would laugh if the panic attacks didn’t suck ass.

He mostly grew up alone and isolated with his only interaction with other humans being his older brother occasionally and Roxy where the former dipped out one random day and the latter was just simple texts over a screen. Yeah, what wonderful interactions he had growing up. In return, he’s not too keen about social cues, and growing up where he couldn’t be told _no_ certainly led to a more childish side of himself when he was in the wrong.

But the worst part had to be how much overstimulation he could get sometimes. He grew up in a dead and quiet house where the loudest noise ended up being the TV if he turned it up high enough (not for long, though, again, overstimulation and all that shit). So when he got out to the real world and all of its _bright lights_ and _loud noises_ he may or may not have slightly freaked the fuck out. And then there was Sburb and all that grandiose bullshit. Add that to the list of ever-growing horrors Dirk would have to deal with. Having to sword fight giant monsters and literally rescue the world itself was not great for his state of mind, even if he _could_ handle the gigantic strobe lights.

One night he just couldn’t take it anymore and curled up on his kitchen floor, hands shoved roughly over his ears in an attempt to make himself breathe through the pain. His chest was labored and tears streaked down his face. He was lost in his own little world of pain, and when he came out of it, the clock told him that he was in it for _hours._

However, when he stretched his sore muscles, he felt a blanket fall off his shoulders. Weird, he never grabbed one himself before he freaked the fuck out-- or maybe he did. He was pretty lost, maybe he didn’t realize. When he stood up and walked out to his living room, blanket wrapped around his shoulders, he nearly jumped at the sight of a sleeping Dave on his couch.

Huh, alright.

When Dave woke up, Dirk asked him why he came and what he was doing there.

Dave just shrugged, “I wanted to visit you and was caught off guard when I saw you in your own little head on the kitchen floor. I hoped the blanket helped more than it hurt, I read up on this stuff. Anything you do just hurts, even minor touches. Jesus, sorry you have to deal with that. I don’t really deal with anything in that regard, but maybe some of my tips could still help?”

Dirk just tightened the blanket around his shoulders, “Uh, yeah, the blanket worked. Thanks, dude. Sure, you can try helping it you want.”

He’s gotten better, especially with everyone’s’ help. He’s been slowly introduced to stimuli over time, and now he no longer feels like his head is going to burst if he stares at a flashlight for more than a millisecond. He can actually hold his own pretty well. He’s learned better calming tactics, and Dave was always willing to lend him some item or another that would help him get through it easier.

Dave was a major help with his panic attacks too. Dirk never quite understood why his brother could calm him down so easily, but Dave just _could,_ and for while (selfishly, might he add), Dirk never questioned it. He was so thankful to finally be able to work around his problems that when Dave was over for a visit one night, Dirk was not prepared for him to be thrown to the ground when he came into the guest room to wake the younger one up.

He grunted when Dave pinned him to the floor and was shocked when he looked up and saw Dave glaring at him like he was a robber invading the house. Dirk tried breaking away peacefully, but damn that grip in his shirt was _rough._ Realizing this was going to be a losing fight if he didn’t do anything else, Dirk gripped Dave and flipped him around, effectively turning the tables by having Dave be the one pinned.

Right before Dirk could let go, he widened his eyes when he heard Dave start to slowly form a panic attack. Letting go like he was holding fire, Dirk stepped back and watched as Dave worked himself up to near-hyperventilating. The younger Strider wrapped his arms around his waist and probably would’ve started crying if he wasn’t thinking that he was with _that_ guy.

“No! I _won!_ Isn’t that enough for today?!”

Oh _fuck._

Dirk kind of felt like a major dickwad for a little bit afterward. Here Dave was, coming over every day to look into the eyes of his abuser with no troubles whatsoever! Hell, even if Dave and his Bro’s relationship was all sunshine and rainbows, Dave still went through Sburb himself, that was bound to create trauma in its own right.

It took a long-ass time to get Dave to realize just what he’d been through. Partially because of Dirk’s own reluctance to help in the beginning (“Roxy! I look like the guy! I don’t want to accidentally convince Dave what he went through wasn’t awful as hell!”). After a little ass-kicking from the LaLondes, Dirk eventually started helping Dave like Dave helped him. Helping him breathe though an attack, not getting too close or touchy feeling when Dave was in the middle of a flashback, stuff like that.

Right before the moment Dave came to the conclusion that he _actually_ went through abuse was actually a pretty chill day. It was metaphorical, in a way, they were having a great time when it suddenly came out of nowhere. Story of their lives, right?

They were in the kitchen one night when Dave suddenly froze. Dirk did too, not sure what was happening. Blinking a couple of times, Dave quietly whispered out, “My Bro was an asshole, wasn’t he?”

The only thing Dirk could do was gulp, “Yeah, man, he kind of was.”

They said nothing the rest of the night.

_“The road of recovery is a long one, guys! Don’t feel bad if you can’t do it in one night, or month, hell, maybe even a year! We all have to recover at our own pace.”_

Jade’s words have stuck with the Striders ever since. They weren’t ‘broken’ or ‘not savable’, they were just a little lost and sad. They would need to fix things as time went on, change strategies when previous ones became uncomfortable, and just learn to stick together. It’ll take a long-ass time, but _recovery_ is a long-ass thing to begin with.

And if their recovery involved them sometimes hunkering down underneath a blanket while ragging on bad movies while eating cheap, microwavable popcorn, then yeah, they can stick with it

It’s hard to say if they’ll ever fully ‘recover’, but they do know that they’ve gotten pretty damn close to whatever ‘recovered’ probably was.

“Aw, that’s totally not possible! Even with magic as a potential explanation!”

Dirk smirked. Yeah, definitely close.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so, like, im going to be honest: i havent gotten past act 5 act 1 in homestuck so i could be widely off the mark with things dave and dirk has seen (i havent even gotten to dirk being in the comic yet lmao) so i apologize if something doesnt make sense!
> 
> regardless, please let me know of any glaring typos! im okay with criticism as long as you give it nicely~
> 
> If you wish to scream at me here's my [main tumblr](https://halorocks1214.tumblr.com/)
> 
> And while youre at it heres my [whump blog](https://whumpitlikeitshot.tumblr.com/)


	32. Embrace/Hiding

Ellen liked to hide.

She hid just about everything for a good portion of her life, and most of it was because she had to. Yeah, part of it was her insecurities and _no one will love me if I’m like this_ related type thoughts, but Merek also realizes now that her fear about that stuff wasn’t too terribly unfounded. It’s not like Merek can chastise her about it either, lord knows him and the rest of his family deal with the same problems. 

It took a thousand years (not literally, thank God), but they know to just _be_ there. No need for talking every time or therapy or insistence things will be different-- because with their jobs that’s kind of impossible-- just _feeling._ The general knowledge that none of them are alone anymore and that they don’t need to carry the world on their shoulders.

But that’s what brings Merek to tonight. Ellen has honestly never been alone. Sure, her pool of family and friends was extremely small back then-- her mothers and the two people who would be genuinely willing to hang out with her outside of school activities-- but she _did_ have someone. Her issues stem from the fact that, again, she didn’t think she _deserved_ them.

So much death and loss happened to her throughout her childhood. She was only promised more to come by her mentors, that death that would just come to _her_ eventually. Coupled with everything else in her life-- raging insecurity, vile bullying, and the idea that she gave herself that she was _cursed_ (it would be funny if it weren’t so damn _sad_)-- she closed herself off more than she should have. Instead of freely taking the help she had around her, she did it in calculated doses. Enough to feel comfortable, but not as much as she truly wanted, _needed._ She would be right next to her mom on the verge of tears, wanting so badly for a goddamn hug and a kiss and for her mom to wipe away her feelings, but she kept it in, kept it hidden.

And it was always funny how she was the one to preach the loudest about _sticking together_ and _you deserve to be happy_ when she believed her words the least out of everyone. I mean, she was ‘_cursed,_ a _burden,_ she never _deserved_ it, but _they_ did for putting up with her.’ Her job was to make everyone other than herself happy and safe. 

After all, if someone cared about her a little too much, they would go away somehow.

Running his hand through his hair, Merek understood it, unfortunately. It’s happened before and it’ll keep happening again, hell, even he’s had to ‘die’ or disappear because of a job or two, and so has she, and even though they’re at an understanding that it’s (mostly) not real, it still hurts. It flares up that age-old fear that they’re just burdens to one another. If there’s any shining light, however, it’s that it takes them all a lot less time to realize, _no, they’re not awful people for this._ Every time they found a new member of their family-- Mom, Dad, Father, Mother, etc.-- they weren’t even in a position to _try_ and work out those complicated feelings with one another.

But then it became only months it took to recover, then weeks, and then even just days. It’s taken years for them to process this fact-- that they’re better together, that they’re making things worse by closing themselves off-- but they made it. They’ve formed friendships again, formed _families_ again. They have so many people to fall back on that it’s insane to try and think about it in one night.

But, still, they had that thought process for years, and the consequences are that it’ll never go away. Some days would be so great that they didn’t even remember all of their self-loathing tendencies… but then days/weeks like this happened and…

An attack happened. It was relatively small compared to other things they’ve been through, but Ellen’s been on edge this week for more reasons than one. Some kind of vision hit her recently, and the details Merek’s gotten have been vague at best. To put it mildly: what’s going to happen isn’t pretty. She can’t tell if any deaths are set in stone yet, but even if she did know that there were some, she’d still find a way to prevent them. The aforementioned attack had nothing to do with any of what she saw, but their father still got hurt. Minorly; just bruises, thank God, but with everything else on Ellen’s mind, it wasn’t hard for her to regress into some old mindsets.

She ran off to one of her special hiding places. She has, like, a dozen of them, and she just makes more when everybody finds one. So they decided to leave it be and instead just learn her patterns and chase her down during the calm of the storm. It gives them time to think, time to prepare what exactly to say so they can get through to her. It’s been a few hours, and Terrence mentioned he saw Ellen fly out their base’s window a little bit ago.

Merek rubbed the back of his neck, looking up at the tree nervously. Ellen always like high, secluded places where the wind could flow through her hair. It was cathartic. She liked having her hair gently messed with. It showed how much she trusted the people around her not to hurt her (her hair was always sensitive). Taking a deep breath, Merek took a step closer, “Ellen…? Can I... can I come up?”

A rustle of the leaves from both the wind and a familiar other person. Once the leaves stopped, there was no noise, period. Then, quietly, “Sure.”

Yes, thank the lord above. Merek will count that as a win for tonight. This means it’s not too bad. Usually, it never ever gets as bad as it was when she was a kid. They can’t go through that pain again, _especially_ her. With a leap, a grab, a clutch, and a heave, Merek was up on the branch his sister was. She was looking out over the horizon, forlornly admiring the stars. Saying nothing, he quietly scooted over and sat right next to her. Close enough to feel each others’ shoulders but not actually touching.

Knowing how nights like this go, they’ll get there eventually. 

They sat there silently, just waiting for the other to make the move. Luckily (or unluckily, as she would probably put it), Merek was stellar at silence to the point of discomfort. It wasn’t agony, but it sure made Ellen groan and spill the beans after a few minutes, “I _know_ it’s stupid, okay--”

Merek shrugged his shoulders, derailing that thought, “I never said it was stupid.”

“_\--Not necessary_ or whatever it is,” Ellen brought the train back on the tracks, “I know it’s not _true,_ is what I’m trying to say. He didn’t even get _that_ hurt, and I’m aware that even if I were next to him I probably couldn’t have stopped it, but--”

Merek scooted closer, finally allowing the touch they both needed between their shoulders, “It _feels_ that way, right?” He was blatantly using the same words and tactics she used on him all those years ago when they got back together after their argument. He thought he was hopeless, that he didn’t deserve a second chance with her after how he damaged her. But she forgave him anyway. She might have done it quicker than most people would have, but she still did.

Ellen, scared of what would come out if she spoke, gulped her emotions and shakily nodded her head.

Merek used his fondest voice possible. One he’s actually managed to form after years of learning how to become a regular person with regular emotions, “It’s not stupid that you feel this way, Miss Kettle. It’s your words, remember? ‘A bad habit learned in a day takes a year to get out of.’ You’re never going to just _stop_ that part of yourself that tells you a failure, not after how long you believed it, and especially not tonight you’re not, but you know what makes this different?”

Ellen looked up into her brother’s eyes, tears forming.

Merek slightly grinned, “When we first got back together, you would have never let me get this close until weeks after the fact. _I_ would have never let _you_ get this close to me either. Both of us know now that we deserve help and a family and _love._ It started with _you_ never giving up, and now that _we_ know better, we’re able to turn your care and words back around and help you out the same way. _None_ of us will ever fully get over everything we’ve been through, but we’re strong-ass people. We can at least realize that we can work through it _together._”

The tears slowly slipped down her cheeks and Ellen pushed forward into his arms. Without missing a beat, Merek wrapped his arms around her shoulders in a soft embrace, lightly pressing his face against her temple. It wasn’t really a kiss, but it was something to show her that he was close.

She giggled in his chest wetly, still not completely done crying, “Part of me wishes I could go back and preach to you guys a little less. I hate it so much when you throw my words back at me like this.”

Merek hummed sarcastically, rubbing her back in a way that didn’t make her want to run again, “No you don’t. You’d feel guilty as hell if you didn’t help us out when you could. Your heart is your downfall as much as it is your greatest strength.”

Ellen barked a laugh as she leaned out of his arms to wipe her tears. She was grinning like crazy when she looked at Merek again, “Goddammit, stop using meta tactics on me!”

She playfully swatted at him and he blocked her with ease even as his focus was elsewhere. He was too busy being giddy at the smile on his sister’s face and soon he was laughing along with her. Once they were done, they simply leaned on each other and looked out over at the stars. Unlike how Ellen was before their heart-to-heart, they simply dazed because they were so satisfied they couldn’t do anything else.

When Ellen yawned, Merek decided that it was time to go. It was pretty cold outside, and the last thing either of them needed was to get sick, “Alright, I’m kind of exhausted too. Let’s skedaddle back home, I’m sure Father has similar words to mine that are meant for you.”

Ellen rolled her shoulders to wake her arms up, “I’m sure he does.”

They leaped off the tree and landed squarely on their legs. They stood up to their full heights (Merek towering over Ellen by half-a-foot at least) and looked at each other once more before Ellen quickly shoved herself into Merek’s chest again. Only blinking, Merek briefly hugged his sister once more before they walked back to their house in the Village.

They’ll always need reminders, every one of their friends and family, but now they finally _have_ people who will _be_ there to give it to them.

It almost makes the trauma worth it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> last one folks! this year has been a blast (like always), and this could very easily be my last one. ill be in college by the time the next one rolls around (if there is a next one) and while im not going to stop fic writing i might have my priorities in the fic department in other spots that dont relate to whump, but we'll see!!! chapter guide should be up by this sunday at the latest!
> 
> please let me know of any glaring typos! criticism is okay as long as you give it respectfully~
> 
> If you wish to scream at me here's my [main tumblr](https://halorocks1214.tumblr.com/)
> 
> And while youre at it heres my [whump blog](https://whumpitlikeitshot.tumblr.com/)


End file.
